


Oh my gosh, they were roommates.

by BornofFlame



Series: Healing is chaotic, but so are we. [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Angst, Car Accident, Halloween parties, Human AU, I wrote an original song for this fic, Karaoke, M/M, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Remus Is A Jerk, Suicidal Thoughts, Texting, all of you are going to hate me by the time I finish this, angst but it all gets better, apparently virgil has a youtube, fluffff, i guess that its not violence but there will be blood, i wasn't expecting this to get so long, i'm still working on it, janus is a sweetie and nice, roommates au, swearing tw, there will be kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 31,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24780622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornofFlame/pseuds/BornofFlame
Summary: Somewhere in the world, there are six people that are completely unrelated to you, but somehow share the exact same DNA structure as you.  Considered as carbon copies, having all six of your personas alive at once is a one in a 200,900,000,000 chance.By some horrible coincidence, a group of college roommates somehow have found their ‘other selves’, each one with a distinct personality and name.Chaos ensues.
Relationships: Analogical - Relationship, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Moceit, Rosleep - Relationship
Series: Healing is chaotic, but so are we. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812676
Comments: 118
Kudos: 256





	1. How did you get our numbers?

**Author's Note:**

> So obviously they all can't have the same last name and so I spent some time reading Fanfiction and the last names below seem to be more commonly accepted as potential last names. Except I couldn't find anything for Janus, so I used Faux, cause that means fake in French.
> 
> TS- Thomas Sanders  
> VS- Virgil Storm  
> LB- Logan Berry  
> RP- Roman Prince  
> PH- Patton Hart  
> JF-Janus Faux  
> Bonus-Remus Prince (not in the text thread. yet.)
> 
> I want to have a mix of texting and actual writing, so comment and let me know if you want me to continue.

_ PH has started a chat with TS, LB, JF, RP and 1+others _

_ PH named the chat to ROOMIES! <3 _

PH: Heyyyyyy kiddos!

VS: Oh great, there’s a dad in the chat.

PH: Now, there’s no need to be rude, I just can’t wait to meet all of you in real life! I’m Patton.

TS: How did you get my number?

PH: Long story.

LB: It’s actually not, I’ve had all your numbers since the roommates ad was put out. 

TS: That’s not creepy.. At all…

PH: YAy! We’re all on the same page! Can I get all your names now, if we’re gonna be living together!

VS: No.

LB: Logan.

TS: I’m Thomas

JF: Janus

JF: Go ahead and laugh

RP: I am XD

JF: I’m telling ur brother.

RP: Oh God no.

PH: YOU TWO KNOW EACH OTHERE?!?!?!

PH: *OTHER

JF: i’m his best friend

RP: No ur not

RP: ur my brother’s best friend

JF: of course ROMan

VS: That’s it, I’m silencing this chat until we actually move in together. See you guys on Monday.

_ VS has silenced the _ chat

PH: BYEEEeeee VS!

LB: So we know everyone’s names except VS?

RP: I’m going to call him Gloomy McGee for now.

JF: That’s not very kind of you Roman.

RP: What do you know about kindness Janus?

JF: …

PH: hey hey kiddos, lets calm down.

TS: it was nice meeting all of you, through texting at least.

TS: But I have work, so see you all Monday?

PH: Bye Thomas!

JF: Hey Roman, what if I told everyone ur last name ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

RP: Janus.

JF: yes?

RP: I will kill you if you do.

JF: Fair enough. I guess I’ll see you all in two days.


	2. Chili in August

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil moves in, meets the others, and chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virgil POV.   
> I like this chapter, it's always fun to write in Virgil's POV. I don't know, maybe some analogical there at the end, but it's more not platonic, but not romantic.
> 
> *Excoriation is a neurological disorder where you pick at your skin uncontrollably. It is typically found in people who have PTSD, anxiety and body dysmorphia. It is usually shown through picking at the skin around fingernails, picking at scabbing until it scars, etc. Virgil's excoriation is mostly hidden by his hair, where there are scars and scabs from him constantly picking and itching his head.*
> 
> The only reason why I know so much about excoriation is because I suffer from it, in a similar fashion to how I wrote it. I think that it's important to bring to light, that even when people "look" normal, there's still something boiling under the surface. It can be treated through therapy and medication, but most people don't treat it from shame.
> 
> If you suffer from something similar, it's okay to ask for help. Excoriation can be considered as self harm, often leaving scarring on the person affected by it, so I urge you to get help. Usually my notes are pretty lighthearted, but I just felt like I had to address this.

Virgil pulled his hoodie up and dragged the suitcase into the room that had his name on it, pulling the sticky note off the door as he did so.

There wasn’t any reason that anyone needed to know his name yet. Virgil threw the suitcase down and opened it, pulling out a single polaroid. He sighed and put the photo in the desk drawer next to his new bed and shut it, before turning back to survey the small space.

He was the first one here, he had chosen that so that by the time his five roommates showed up, he’d be locked safely in his room and completely unpacked. Technically, moving in time was supposed to be five pm, but honestly, there was already signs of at least two other people moving into their rooms, so Virgil wasn’t worried for once.

“HELLLO?”

Virgil froze.

“HELLO? IT’S PATTON!” 

So, the friendly voice from downstairs was the same person who started the chat Saturday night. Interesting. Virgil quietly walked out of his room and nervously made his way down the stairs, looking for Patton.

He was in the tiny kitchen, loading what looked like vegetables into the fridge, back turned from Virgil, who froze again.

The dude literally looked like someone’s stereotypical dad. Patton turned, a carrot stick in his mouth, before breaking into a smile.

“Well, I carrot beleaf it, it’s my new roommate!”

“Did you just use two puns in a row?”

“That I did! Who are you? Roman? You don’t look like a Roman.”

“I-- I’m not Roman.” 

“Are you Janus?”

“No.”

“Are you the mysterious VS?” Patton clapped his hands excitedly and beamed even wider. “You’re now my dark strange son. uwu”

Virgil could feel the shocked look cross his face. It took a lot out of someone to shock him nowadays, but literally having that someone say uwu helped. “Did you say uwu?”

“Sure did! And look, you did too!” 

“Uh, sure.” Virgil scratched the back of his head, where a sore spot was forming from his most recent bout of anxiety induced excoriation had surfaced.

“You okay kiddo?”

“Aren’t we, like, the same age?” Virgil asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you treat everyone like they’re your child?”

“Life’s more fun that way! Hot chocolate?” Patton held out a packet of drink mix and Virgil shook his head.

“It’s August.”

“I take it you’re more of a coffee guy?”

“Straight from the pot. It’s the only straight thing about me.” Virgil shrugged and started backing toward the stairs. “I’ll, um, see you tonight, when everyone else arrives?”

“Oh yeah, I’m making everyone dinner!” Patton smiled one last time before waving Virgil off. “Go finish moving in, I’ll let the others know not to bother you until Roman gets back from his theater practice.”

“When is that?”

“Seven!” 

“Thanks.” Virgil walked up the stairs and locked himself back in his room, sighing with relief as he flopped on the bed.

Scratchy wool blanket.

Oh, that was so going to have to be replaced.

Seven came way too soon. Patton came upstairs and yelled for him and apparently Logan, who had been shut in his room for almost as long as Virgil.

“Oh come on you two, everyone’s here!” Patton banged on Virgil’s door and then moved to the one next to it, the loud sound rattling around in his brain.

“I’m coming.” Virgil walked downstairs slowly, taking in the commotion.

Three faces turned to look at him and he froze.

It was absolutely freaky, like looking at different versions of himself. 

A tap on his shoulder startled him back to reality.

“You see it too?”

Virgil looked back to see someone who looked almost exactly like Patton, except he was in a dark polo shirt and a tie.

“Yeah, but you look like me too.” Virgil pointed out quietly.

“ _Oh no_.” Tie him gently pressed a finger in his back, urging Virgil to join the others in the living room.

Patton bounced down the stairs and joined them, a massive smile on his face.

“I’ve already met all of you, so I’ll do the introductions!” Patton pointed to Tie him. “That’s Logan, and he’s really smart.” 

Tie him, no, _Logan_ , adjusted his glasses and nodded at the others, the ghost of a smile on his face.

Patton pointed to the guy next to Logan, who was decked out in a full on Disney prince outfit, with loads of stage makeup covering his face. “That’s Roman.”

Roman caught Virgil’s eye and winked. Virgil scowled in response.

“And that’s Thomas.” Out of the group, Thomas looked the most normal, dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt from a show that Virgil didn’t recognize. Thomas waved and smiled awkwardly, probably just as confused as the rest of them as to why they were looking in a funhouse mirror.

The last person who hadn’t been introduced, other than him, was by far the most odd looking. He had a massive work of scarring on one side of his face and he was the only one in the group who was grinning wickedly.

“That’s Janus.”

Janus grinned even wider and he nodded at each of the others in turn, his gaze holding for an uncomfortably long time when he saw Virgil.

“And here’s the mysterious VS!” Patton said cheerfully, wrapping an arm around Virgil and pulling him into a one armed hug.

“Are those actual dark rings under your eyes, or is that eyeshadow?” Roman broke the silence and Virgil glared.

“Is that what you wear on a regular basis, or are you an understudy?”

Roman gasped, and Virgil held back a snicker as the others had oddly different reactions.

Logan was the first to break the silence.

“So, we’re a living paradox.”

Thomas broke down with a sigh and practically yelled with relief. “I thought I was the only one looking at myself.”

“No, I’m pretty sure we all noticed, except for Patton.” Janus’s hands moved quickly when he talked and there was just something about him that deeply unsettled Virgil.

“I noticed, but I figured that it was cool that I got to live with all my doppelgängers!”

“They’re carbon copies to be precise. Doppelgängers typically share names and are completely alike in interests, habits and other items that make them nearly impossible to tell from the next. We do not fit that category, therefore, we are carbon copies.” Logan finished his monologue and adjusted his glasses again, and Virgil marked it down in his mind as a nervous tic of some sort.

“Well, I made dinner and it’s getting cold, so let's eat!” Patton clapped his hands together and started herding everyone to the small kitchen, where a pot of chili was on the stove.

“Patton, it’s August.”

“I know, why does everyone keep saying that? It was the fastest thing I could make from scratch so that it could cook all day.”

“Well, I like chili.” Thomas was the first to grab a bowl, exiting the kitchen and sitting at the table. Everyone else seemed to follow after, Virgil waiting until the others had filled up the five seats at the table before sitting on the counter facing the others.

Dinner was oddly quiet, and when everyone was finished, they kinda just… floated off to their separate rooms, leaving Logan and him.

“Why are you still here?”

“I’m eating.” Virgil watched as Logan carried a few of the dishes to the sink and started washing them, soapy water splashing up onto the counter.

“There’s a dishwasher.”

“This is a condo rented by college students. The chances of the dishwasher being properly taken care of are low to none. I’ll wash the dishes and then load them into the dishwasher, just as a precaution.” Logan moved Virgil’s legs out of the way and opened the dishwasher, loading in the first pristine dish.

“Weird.”

“Not as weird as withholding your name. Even from Patton, he seems like the fatherly type.” 

“I don’t like people having leverage over me.”

“It’s an anxiety thing I’m guessing?”

Virgil’s mouth opened in shock. That was twice now in one day that someone had broken through to actually get some emotion out of him. Logan glanced at him and shrugged. “You have nervous tics. Scratching the back of your head and neck, freezing when something startles you, if I was going to guess, I’d say anxiety.”

“How are you so creepily smart?”

“I study.” Logan went back to his dish cleaning and Virgil hopped off the counter, deciding to hide in his room until morning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh, leave kudos? comments? thanks for reading.


	3. Tapping on a wall.  (hoping you'll answer)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan POV  
> I like writing in Logan's POV too, it's just, wow, his chapters are going to need so much more research. Anyway, Logan has a few midnight text messages and chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morse code is a method of communication using dots and dashes, or beeps and buzzes. Logan and Virgil's use is knocks and raps, with the knocks standing in for the dashes and the raps standing in for the dots. I would have translated Logan's lines across, but I ran out of time, so only Virgil uses morse. I do plan on using more morse in the future, because I headcanon that Logan knows morse code because he's smart and wants an alternative way of communication and Virgil knows it because deep down he's a nerd. 
> 
> link to a translation chart: https://www.google.com/search?q=morse+code+chart&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS708US710&sxsrf=ALeKk02qMOxkSGgB3s5YbeAvkioKrjSLIA:1592540096519&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Wt4h6zKBXGwU2M%253A%252Cuw44C0ZnYyinSM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRu5z3L0YuA5FCXq_AgWCWp2k_6iA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBgfmVgo3qAhXpN30KHXa5A5gQ9QEwAHoECAoQLw&biw=1364&bih=625#imgrc=Wt4h6zKBXGwU2M:

_ PH changed name to Patton _

_ Patton changed LB to Logan _

_ Patton changed RP to Roman _

_ Patton changed TS to Thomas _

_ Patton changed JF to Janus _

_ Patton changed VS to emo child _

emo child: It’s _ literally _ midnight

emo child: why is my name this

Patton: cause you're the emo child

_ emo child changed name to Virgil _

Logan: this is an interesting turn of events.

Virgil: I was not counting on you being up.

Logan: I wasn’t.

Patton: OH! You must have notifications on.

Virgil: Patton

Virgil: Go to sleep

Patton: Okay, see you in the morning! <3

Logan: Good night

_ Virgil changed name to VS. _

VS: Don’t tell anyone else.

_ VS deleted previous messages. _

Logan turned off his phone once Virgil had confirmed the deleting of the messages.

He was kinda surprised that Virgil had opened up like that, even if it was meant for Patton and he’d been caught in the crossfire. 

Virgil’s room was the one right next to his and for most of the night it had been dead silent.

Until midnight.

Logan had been studying for a statistics entrance test when noise from the room next door prompted him to put down his books and press his ear against the wall. 

The sound was muffled, but it sounded like…  _ crying?  _ Logan strained again, but the crying had quieted, leaving nothing but a silent room. 

He took his ear off the wall and sat on his bed. Something was up with Virgil, but he didn’t exactly know how to ask. Logan was all about the strategy and the logic, not dealing with people with anxiety. 

He took his knuckles and started knocking on the wall.

_ R u good _

There was a beat of silence, convincing him that Virgil did not know morse code and he, Logan had probably just pissed him off in the short time--

_ Knock … rap knock… knock.. knock… _

_ No. _

Logan sat up straight and held back a yell of happiness. Finally, someone else knew morse code. 

But right now wasn’t exactly the time to celebrate. Logan pressed his ear against the wall again and started tapping out another sentence.

_ Text me _

Another pause before Virgil rapped back.  _ Knock… rap….knock. _

Logan’s phone screen lit up, and he snatched it up, quickly unlocking it.

_ VS started a chat with LB _

_ VS changed name to Virgil _

_ VS changed LB to Logan _

Virgil: Sorry to wake you up.

Logan: I was up before the midnight surprise

Virgil: my name was a surprise, I was trying to only tell patton, but i couldnt get the private chat to work

Logan: I won’t tell anyone, promise.

Logan: Do you want to talk about what was bothering you?

Virgil: not really

Virgil: what’s the chances that all of our carbon copies were going to meet up like this

Logan: Really, really low. Like it’s probably never happened before.

Virgil: it freaks me out

Logan: I am slightly perturbed by it as well.

Virgil: what do you think happened to Janus’ face?

Logan: It looks like third degree burns that weren’t skin grafted, I pity him.

Virgil: wack

Logan: What does wack mean?

Virgil: strange, or weird 

Virgil: what’s your major?

Logan: Statistics. And you?

Virgil: i don’t know yet

Virgil: gtg

Logan: I think you mistyped.

Virgil: it stands for got to go

Logan: oh

Logan: goodnight 

Virgil: gn

Logan powered down his phone and put it on his desk, before pulling off his glasses and setting those on top. It was late, he was exhausted and he had had a really strange conversation to top it off. Logan flopped back on his bed, loosening his tie and throwing it on the ground before pulling the blanket over him and falling asleep.

He was woken up by the sunlight and by the sound of someone banging pots and pans together.

“YABADADO DA! _AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ ” that was probably Roman, Logan mused as he took his pillow and used it to cover his head.

“SHUT YOUR _EVERLOVING_ GOBFLAPPER ROMAN!” That sounded like Janus.

“TRY ME!” Roman again. Logan let out a half choked screech and sat up, putting on his glasses as he stumbled for his door and threw it open.  
More sounds of singing forced their way upstairs and Logan blinked a few times before walking down the stairs into the main room.

Sure enough, Patton was making pancakes, Roman and Janus appeared to be in a fight and it looked like Thomas and Virgil were drinking coffee from shot glasses.

“What’s going on?”

“Breakfast!” Patton flipped a pancake and Logan shook his head as he sat at the table.

“You want a shot?”

“I thought that that was coffee.”

“No, it’s spirits.” Thomas choked back another shot and Logan shook his head.

“Do you guys think that this is healthy?”

“No.” Thomas and Virgil agreed in unison.

“And you’re still going to keep doing it?” Logan asked, as he sighed and ran a hand through his unkempt hair, trying not to sound exasperated.

Virgil looked at Thomas and they both shrugged. “Just this once.” Thomas promised as he passed another shot to the darker version of him.

“I have a stats test in an hour, so I’m going to go get ready for the day.” Logan wandered through the kitchen, grabbing a pancake and eating it without syrup as he went back upstairs to get dressed in a fresh polo shirt and tie that were completely identical to his outfit from the day before.

When he had finished struggling into jeans, a knock at his door startled him. Logan straightened his tie and opened it.

Roman was there, in a bright red t-shirt, with a navy blue backpack slung over one shoulder.

“I’m heading to campus for right now.”

“What?” Logan picked up his canvas passenger bag, trying to not look completely lost at Roman’s mixup.

“I meant that, I’m going to campus right now and was wondering if you wanted to come along, since you have that test you keep talking about.”

“Fair enough, lets go.” Logan scooted around Roman and they walked outside, making their way from the condo to campus.

“So, why were you scatting at the top of your lungs this morning?”

“Janus said that scat wasn’t singing so I was proving him wrong.”

“I see. Why are you coming to campus anyway? Classes don’t start for another two weeks.”

“I’m visiting my twin brother, Remus.”

“You two are named after the twins that founded Rome? Interesting.”

Roman’s eyes widened in shock. “In all my years of life, I’ve never noticed that.”

“I feel like you don’t notice a lot of things.” Logan mumbled under his breath.

They made it to the campus and Roman waved to Logan as he broke off to go meet with his brother.

“See you later Lo!”

“Bye Roman.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading, comments and kudos are always appreciated!


	4. Double Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman meets up with his brother and they have a heart to heart of some sort.  
> Chaos ensues.  
> Roman POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I the only one who seems to notice that every college campus has a Starbucks of some sort? I don't even like coffee, but I was on a college campus the other day and there was a Starbucks and I bought a hot chocolate and took a selfie with it like one of those models. Except my selfie was of me tossing it the trash, yay!
> 
> Hand sanitizer is 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% water, making it so if you light it on fire, it'll burn the alcohol but not you. I've done it, it's fun, but extremely dangerous and you can get third degree burns from it.

Roman slapped Remus on the back and grinned as his twin brother scowled.

“Sorry you had to bail me out of campus jail again.”

“Just don’t try to hit someone with the bloody prop hand again. People are going to think that you’re psychotic.” Roman pulled an apple out of his backpack and gave it to Remus, being careful not to look his sibling in the eye.

“You think that I can’t handle myself.”

“You can’t! It’s your fault Janus has the melted face.” 

Remus took a bite of the apple and sneered. “I just told him that hand sanitizer could burn but not burn you and he thought it was a good idea to rub it over his face.”

Roman zipped up his bag, angry. “You lit the match.”

“I was eight! Let it go Roman!”

“NO! HE WAS MY FRIEND AND YOU HURT HIM.” Roman shouted as he held back a few tears.

Remus took another bite of apple. “It’s not my fault that everyone thought that you did it.”

“It is your fault that you didn’t tell anyone that it was actually you.”

“Oh Roman, you just can’t act to save your life.” Remus tossed his apple with two bites out of it, watching with amusement as it bounced out of the trash and landed on the ground. Roman walked to the apple and picked it up, throwing it away in the correct trash can.

“Hey Rom? When are you going to realize that you just can’t succeed?”

“Remus, I just bailed you out of campus jail.” Roman sighed and pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking to see if Patton had text him yet.

_ PH started a new chat _

_ PH changed name to DAD<3 _

_ DAD<3 changed RP to Princey _

DAD<3: Where did you go? 

DAD<3: Are you coming back soon?

Princey: I took Logan to his test and then am spending some time with Remus.

DAD<3: Ok, I’ve heard lots of good things about him from Janus, have fun!

Princey: right.

Princey: thx.

Roman looked back to Remus, who had somehow gotten stuck in a bicycle rack and was giving him puppy dog eyes as a plea for help. Roman sighed and walked over.

“Why.”

“You skipped the what dear brother.”

“I don’t care about the what. You knew that I moved out so that I can be free from you.” Roman pulled at his brother’s leg, ignoring his yelp of pain when it finally popped free. “I finally found a condo, full of five other guys that won’t care who I like, or how late I come home from theatre practice or from shows. And maybe I have a shot making amends with Janus, but how am I supposed to do that when you’re here like a, a, a parasite that sucks my happiness!”

“Do you know the dark strange one’s name yet?” Remus rested his head in his hands and eagerly looked up at Roman.

“He told the group chat last night, but Thomas, Janus and I agreed to pretend that we weren’t up when he told Patton.”

“So you’re telling me that Janus convinced you to lie?”

“No, it was Thomas’s idea, we didn’t want to hurt V’s feelings if he woke up and everyone knew.”

“Aw, Roman, look at all the bounds you’re taking. Only been moved out for twenty four hours.”

Roman sat on the ground next to his brother and put his head in his hands, defeated. “How come I can spend a half hour with you and I already feel like my ego’s taken a massive blow?”

“Oh I don’t know. You want to go get a coffee?” 

“Fine.” Roman got to his feet and pulled Remus up, practically dragging him to the campus Starbucks. He ordered for both of them-- mostly so Remus wouldn’t get them kicked out-- and then brought their drinks to the outdoor seating. 

“Have you ever thought about appreciating me?”

“No.” Roman practically growled.

“Well, how about asphyxiating me?” Remus stirred his drink and took a delicate sip.

“I’m surprised you have a vocabulary that large.” Roman opened his drink and dumped in a sugar packet.

“I know big words.” Remus stated modestly.

“Just because you have a fancy word for suffocate, doesn’t mean you're smart.”

Remus stood and dumped his drink on Roman’s head. “You and I are not so different. We look practically the same, except I’m taller and have the capacity to grow facial hair. And then there’s the biggest difference.”

Roman wiped coffee from his face and glared up at his brother. “Which is?”

Remus put his hands on the table, leaning forward and grinning wickedly. “I’m willing to let my creative impulse take over.” He straightened up, and adjusted his shirt and backpack. “See you around Roman.”

He walked away, leaving his brother alone and covered in coffee. Roman didn’t react, but just sat there, drinking his coffee and quietly waiting for Logan to be done with his test.

His phone buzzed after an hour and he pulled it out, wiping some excess coffee off of it.

Logan: Are you still on campus? I just finished the test. If you’re still spending time with your brother, that’s fine.

Roman: I’m at the Starbucks, is there anything you want? Drinks on me.

Logan: It seems incredibly foolish to have a drink on you.

Roman: I meant I’d pay for it.

Logan: I see.

Logan: No thank you, but I’ll be over in a minute, I can see you.

Roman looked up and turned to see Logan speed walking towards him, one hand pressed to his forehead as a visor against the sun.

“Hey Lo.”

“You really weren’t joking about having coffee on you.”

“No, my brother spilled.”

“That looks like a full on dump.” Logan adjusted his tie, glasses and bag before offering a hand to Roman. 

Roman let the intellectual help him stand and they meandered back to the condos, talking about nothing in particular.

Once they finally got back, Roman opened the door with one of the three keys that the condo had come with (probably should get more duplicates) and held the door open for Logan.

“Thanks.”

“Of course.”

Logan disappeared into the pantry, no doubt looking for a snack, and that left Roman in the living room with Patton and Janus.

“What happened to you kiddo?”

“Nothing.” Roman spat as he turned on his heel and stomped upstairs, leaving a very confused Patton behind.

Janus turned the non scarred half of his face towards Patton and winked. “Princey is fickle that way.” 

Patton’s wide smile flickered. “Right.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> possible ideas for titling this fic
> 
> Oh my Gosh, they Were RooMmAteS  
> Chaos Ensues  
> Fullish House
> 
> comment below on what you want the fic to be called and I'll adjust the title to fit.
> 
> poor Virgil, everyone knows his name know, but Thomas, Roman and Janus are just going to pretend they didn't find out, out of respect.


	5. Cookies for the neighbors.  (and two for him since he's feeling dangerous)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton bakes eight batches of cookies. doing the math, it's like 124 cookies. 
> 
> Moceit? I don't know.  
>  chaos? ensues.  
> hotel? Trivago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HATE PATTON POV
> 
> I should say, I love Patton as a character, but writing from his perspective sucksss. there's going to be a Janus bombshell next chapter, so stay tuned!

Patton pulled the eighth batch of cookies out of the oven. It probably wasn’t helpful that he had made so many, but with all the new people to meet and countless other things weighing on him, from knowing Virgil’s name to wondering why Roman came home in a bad mood and covered in coffee, he was slightly stressed to put it simply.

Nothing chocolate chip cookies couldn’t solve. Patton adjusted his apron--which read ‘number one dad’-- and slipped off his oven mitt as he reached for a warm cookie. He bit into it and hummed with happiness as the melted chocolate chips warmed his heart.

“Can I have one?”

Patton picked up the pan with the hand that was still covered and held it out to the voice, which happened to be Virgil, who hissed at the hot baking sheet and took a step back before composing himself and taking a cookie.

“I usually eat a cookie when I’m having a bad day.” Patton licked some chocolate off his pinky and nodded in approval. “Or if I’m feeling dangerous, I eat two.”

Virgil smirked and took another cookie. “You lead a dangerous life then.”

“Something like that!” The timer on the oven buzzed and Patton whirled around, opening it and letting the heat radiate outwards before he got out the last sheet of cookies.

“I thought that it would be nice to take cookies to all the new people who moved in for school.”

“You really are a dad.” Virgil sat on the counter and watched as Patton took a spatula and started to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

“My apron says it all kiddo. You want to talk about anything?”

“I was just thinking about how the past haunts us and the future is so overwhelming and I honestly can’t deal with the present right now and yet I still move forward and keep surviving and that one time that someone on MySpace posted porn and everyone thought it was me and this other time I--”

Patton held his hand out. “Woah, calm down kiddo. Deep breaths before you spiral even more.”

To his surprise, Virgil listened, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

“Better?”

“Ish.”

“Want another cookie?”

“No thanks.”

Patton finished putting the cookies on the cooling rack and opened a cupboard, pulling out paper plates and plastic wrap. When he turned back to Virgil, he was gone, but he shrugged it off and loaded a few plates with cookies and wrapped them, stacking the plates precariously in one arm.

“Need a hand?”

Patton nodded and Janus took half of the plates. 

“Thank you so much! Want to help me deliver these?”

“Don’t you think it’ll be weird if people see us together? Being carbon copies and what not. I’d be quite disturbed.”

“Just because we look the same, doesn’t mean we are the same.” Patton slipped his Crocs on and flung the door open, prompting Janus to follow him out.

The pair wound their way around the area, handing out cookies and Patton smiling and complementing almost everyone he saw. After a few houses though, Patton paused and opened the last plate.

“Cookie?”

Janus paused, contemplated and then quickly took the cookie, devouring it in a few bites.

“Can I ask you a semi personal question kiddo?” Patton offered another cookie and Janus took it, nodding.

“How’d you get burned?”

“Hand sanitizer and gasoline.” Janus managed a confident smile, but Patton saw through it so he decided not to push it.

“Sounds like a cool hero origin story.” Patton ate another cookie as they walked back to their condo.

“Right. Anyway, I’m ordering pizza for dinner, since you made dinner last night and I now feel guilty.” Janus pulled out his phone and started punching in a number, while Patton watched.

“Wait, you have the pizza number memorized?”

“I have every pizza location within the next fifty miles of this condo.” Janus hit call and winked at Patton. “It’s one of my special gifts.”

He waited while the other ordered. When Janus had finally hung up Patton held out the last cookie.

“Want it?”

“What’s the cost?”

“A really good nickname that I can put as your contact name on our private chat.”

Janus gave Patton the first real smile and took the cookie. “Well, if you insist. Deceit is always a fun one.”

“That’s a horrible nickname. It’s literally everything I stand against.”

“Well, if you say so…  _ Morality.” _

Patton grinned. “I think I like that nickname.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls leave comments and kudos  
> pls  
> pls  
> thank you for reading!


	6. Brace yourself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus POV.  
> also some Moceit and I think we found our first relationship <3
> 
> Janus is hiding secrets and Patton finds out.  
> Chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: burning, scars, abusive relationship, trama, flufffff
> 
> There are multiple types of physical therapy, including a type where you work/knead large amounts of scar tissue to break down the tissue and reduce the scarring so you can gain more movement and less pain. It's kinda an odd type of physical therapy, but hey, it's one that you can do even years after you have completed the original therapy.

_One week later..._

Janus was alone. 

Well, at least as alone as you can get in a small condo with four other college students and him. Janus pulled up his pant leg and removed his shoe and sock, before unlocking the brace that helped him walk.

The brace hurt, it was a bit too small, so that he could wear normal clothes and pass himself off as unscarred. Well, besides the whole face and side burns from Roman.

He slipped the brace off and started to work the scar tissue, kneading it with closed fists as pain shot up his leg.

If there was something to be afraid of, it was fire. Or whatever his peers thought of him. Janus _had_ a cane for the rough days, but the fanciful thing had been pushed under his bed before anyone could have possibly seen it.

He hated imperfection. And yet, he was literally, it by definition. 

His phone buzzed and Janus picked it up, a smile ghosting his face when he saw it was from Patton.

Morality: Hey!

Deceit: Hi

Morality: How are you doing buckaroo?

Deceit: I am alive

Morality: Well, that’s good!

Morality: I’m playing video games with V and Thomas, wanna join?!?

Deceit: you can say Virgil

Deceit: Logan literally slipped up a few days ago.

Deceit: But we were all pretending that we didn’t know.

Morality: Oh

Morality: you still want to come?

Deceit: I can’t right now, maybe later.

Morality: Okay!

Janus watched the green light by Patton’s name disappear before he went back to his physical therapy.

When he finished, he carefully, _carefully_ stood on the leg and tried a step. It wobbled, but held his weight. Janus went for another step when his leg gave up and he fell forward, knocking his computer off of the desk as his cheek hit his chair.

Footsteps rushing up the stairs.

Janus curled into himself, reaching for the leg brace, trying to kick it out of sight when his door swung open and Patton’s cat socks were in his line of sight.

“Oh Janus.” Patton whispered, with concern lacing his voice. Then the he turned and called out of the doorway: 

“Hey guys, just continue without me! I think I’m done for the night!” Janus watched as Patton's socked feet kicked the door shut. He knelt down next to Janus and helped him into a sitting position.

“Hey kiddo, what happened?”

“I fell.”

Patton sat down next to Janus and gently turned his face toward him. “Looks like you’re going to have some bruising, but I can get some ice and that’ll take the swelling down.

“Okay.”

“Do you want to talk about why you have a medical grade permanent leg brace conveniently on the ground?”

Janus’s eyes widened in shock and he held back a yell. When he finally got his composure together he nodded. “It’s complicated.”

“That's why I’m here. Do I need to _brace_ myself?"

“Fair enough. It’s been a while since someone has paused what they were doing for me.” Janus sighed and rested his head against the desk, shifting so that his leg wasn’t in as much pain.

“I was really good friends with Roman when we were younger. I wasn’t lying in the group chat when I said that I was his best friend.”

“What happened?”

“A lot of things. Mostly Remus. He told Roman a bunch of crazy ideas from youtube and we thought it’d be fun to try them out.”

“Like the hand sanitizer burn?”

“That was one of them. The next one was when we tied my feet to a rock and dropped it in a pool. I was hospitalized for a week.”

Patton let out a gasp and his hand grabbed Janus’s, giving it a comforting squeeze.

“And when we were fourteen, there was a split.”

“A split?”

“Roman and Remus are alike, were like mirrors of each other. So they were polar opposites. Remus was very take charge and Roman just rolled with it.”

Patton laughed softly as he looked down at their hands. “He definitely seems like the opposite now.”

“Yeah, anyways, when we were all fourteen, Remus stole a car from his dad and when he was trying to drift, I was filming for it and the car hit me.”

_“WHAT.”_

“Yeah, now I wear… _that_ , to make sure I can walk.”

“Well, I don’t think anyone noticed it, if you’re afraid of aesthetics.” Patton tried to stay cheerful and Janus could feel a bubble of happiness welling up inside him.

“Thanks Patton. I have a cane too, but I didn’t want to draw attention.”

“So that’s why you have a limp in the mornings or when you walk too much.” Patton nodded knowingly and let go of Janus’s hand as he crawled under the bed and pulled the black and silver cane out, dusting off the cobwebs. 

“I think the cane is cool.” Patton blushed and handed it to Janus, who looked at it.

“Thanks.”

“Janus, you don’t have to sacrifice your health because you don’t think we won’t like you.”

“Roman doesn’t know about what the car did. He just knew that Remus went to juvie and that I wasn’t allowed to hang out any more.”

“Hence the split.” Patton nodded.

“Yeah.” Janus ran his hands along the smooth wood and metal of the cane, trying hard not to thank Patton. “Can you grab the brace and pass it over to me?”

“Here.” Patton turned his head as Janus struggled it back on, grumbling the whole time about braces and canes and anything that came to his stream of consciousness.

“Thanks for being here Patton.”

“So I can look back now?”

“Do you know how leg braces work?”

“No.”

Janus sighed and used his cane to stand and held out his hand to Patton. “Need a hand?”

“I don’t want to disrupt your balance.”

“That was only because I didn’t have my brace on, and I had just done some physical therapy and I was tired.” Janus rambled, hating the feeling of nervousness that was somehow rising in his throat, when Patton grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled himself up with a laugh.

“Oh you are _so_ cute when you are nervous.” Patton grinned again and opened the door, stepping halfway out before looking back. “Janus?”

Janus jerked his head up. “Yeah?”

“Do you want to go get ice cream with me? I’d cream if you said yes.” Patton gave a really dramatic wink and Janus smiled.

“I guess Morality.”

“Okay! Can we go right now?!?!”

“Sure.” Janus followed Patton out, using the cane for the first time in almost two weeks, and he had to admit, it took plenty of the pain out of his leg.

“Virge, Thomas! We’re going out.”

Virgil didn’t look up from the game, but Thomas looked up and the last thing Janus saw before the door shut was his eyes widening in shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading:) comments and kudos are always liked.  
> I kinda like writing in Janus's POV, it's currently my longest chapter.
> 
> Janus thinks that Roman lit the match, but it was Remus, and kid memories can be warped. Since they were eight, no charges were pressed, but the second and third time, Remus and Roman were both punished. The car incident was known as "The Split" and it really signifies when the twins became different.  
> yay, trama?
> 
> other people: Janus has vitiligo, or tattoos instead of scales!  
> me: they're burn scars motherfricker.


	7. don't stay awake for too long (don't go to bed)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Texting at 2:30 am.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ummmmmmmmmmmmm, vodka warning.  
> I decided that instead of doing a Thomas POV, it'll just be texting. Also, don't watch movies late at night without a buddy.  
> I've started to develop some texting quirks for them. Virgil never uses capitalization and hardly any punctuation, Logan is always grammatically correct, Patton always uses !!, Janus is almost always snarky and Roman and Thomas try to be grammatically correct, but sometimes forget periods or commas. 
> 
> Does anyone have a sad day song? Mine's Glitter and Gold by Barns Courtney or Deathbed by Powfu. they're both just really good songs that I like listening to as I wallow and pull myself back together. Or sometimes I listen to My R, because it's catchy although the lyrics are really really sad. Or Imagine dragons and alan walker. What can I say? I like really weird alternative pop and rock and also apparently amv's I have no idea why I use the notes section to ramble, but I have written seven chapters of this fic in three days, so uh, enjoy!

_ ROOMIES<3 2:30 A.M. _

_ VS changed name to virgil _

virgil: anyone still up

Thomas: Yea

Patton: Sure thing kiddo!

Roman: I am now.

Janus: eyyy, sorta

virgil: sorry roman

Roman: I don’t care, I had a rough day and I could use the talk.

Thomas: aww, sorry man.

Thomas: What happened?

virgil: spill the tea

Logan: That sounds phenomenally awful.

virgil: it's slang logan

Logan: Well, in that case, ‘spill the tea’

Roman: I saw my brother and he dumped coffee on me.

Thomas: …

Thomas: That’s rough buddy.

Patton: eyyyyy!

virgil: heh

virgil: at least it wasn’t vodka

Roman: what.

virgil: you heard me princey

Roman: …

Patton: Subject change! What’s your favorite sad day song that you listen to to cheer you up?!?!?

Patton: Mine’s the campfire song song from spongebob!

Roman: I just listen to a montage of Disney.

Logan: Clair de lune. It’s a classical piano arrangement done by the composer Claude Debussy and it is a mix of soothing and passionate.

Thomas: Does the Steven Universe theme count? I just binge watch it.

Thomas: or Parks and Rec

Janus: I don’t know the name of it, but I saw it in a vine once. It was a good song, at least the six seconds that I heard.

virgil: deathbed by powfu

Patton: That song is sad

virgil: i know

Logan: You guys should really get some sleep.

virgil: are you saying you don’t count

Logan: …

_ Logan changed virgil to wet blanket _

wet blanket: gee thanks

Logan: Good night.

Janus: nighty - night

Thomas: uh, sleep well?

Patton: SWeet Dreams!

Roman: I’m still staying up if anyone wants to join me, I’m going to watch a movie.

wet blanket: nah

Janus: I’m coming

Patton: Count me in!

Thomas: Just please don’t play it too loud

Roman: Okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos?


	8. Stormcloud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil struggles with the past  
> chaos ensues.
> 
> oh yeah, it's mid october now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing  
> TW: PTSD nightmare  
> TW: abuse  
> TW: suicidal thoughts/ self harm mention
> 
> The song that Virgil sings at the end is called 'Birds' and it's by Thomas Sanders and I thought it'd be cool if that was the only song on the Stormcloud channel.
> 
> yay, virgil pov  
> ummm, I have ptsd, and the nightmare at the very beginning is actually one I've had before, so, nifty.

_You thought._

_Oh yes you did. Wakey-wakey disaster, he’s not going to care. You have one conversation and then what? Nothing, like you._

Dream parent raised a fist and he flinched, waiting for it to come down, waiting for the nightmare to continue.

_Crack._

Virgil sat up, pushing sweaty bangs out of his face as he rubbed the back of his head, surprised that he had managed to not injure himself in his sleep.

Night terrors were only terrors if the parent was more concerned than the child. At least, that’s what doctors told him when he was in his teens. Ergo, having nightmares from a previous abusive family weren’t enough to look into treatment. 

There was a rapping at his wall, and Virgil ignored it, knowing that Logan was up late, that he was always up late, gosh, at least Virgil _tried_ to sleep instead of studying all night.

More rapping.

Virgil sighed angrily and listened, waiting out Logan before rapping out a go away that was _very_ colorful.

Logan didn’t answer and Virgil huffed as he collapsed backward onto his pillow, closing his eyes.

_You don’t measure up._

_You push the people closest to you away._

Virgil ignored the voice and pressed his palms against his eyelids, letting the stars dance beyond his vision, when the creaking of the floorboards outside prompted him to open his eyes.

His door opened and Virgil bolted up, throwing his pillow at the figure, who quickly leaned to the left, completely dodging and then shutting the door behind them.

“Don’t hurt me, stay away.” Virgil hissed.

The figure held its hands up non threateningly. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

Logan.

Virgil relaxed and sighed. “I guess you can come in.”

“I’m already here.” Logan crossed the room and sat down on the bed, adjusting his tie as he did so.

“Do you wear a tie when you sleep?”

“No, it’s a choking hazard.”

“Why are you still wearing it?” Virgil reached for his sweatshirt on the ground and pulled it on, before swinging his legs off the bed so he was sitting next to Logan.

“I thought that you’d rather talk to me if we were dressed normally.”

“Jokes on you, I won’t even talk to you when we’re texting.” Virgil dipped his head and laced his hands together, quiet.

“You are going to tell me what’s going on, Virgil Storm.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You were in a few news reports.” Logan muttered.

“Of course. You never could stop snooping. You’re all about knowledge and whatnot.” Virgil was practically snarling and he clenched his jaw shut before he could growl.

“I’m sorry, but I needed to know why you’re so closed off.”

“You don’t need to know anything about me.” Virgil choked out, “you don’t know anything about me and you don’t want to know.”

“Virgil…” Logan scooted closer to him and wrapped his arm around Virgil. “I wanted to know so I could help you. That’s it. I can’t keep waking up to my housemate crying and knowing that when I knock on the wall he won’t answer anymore.”

“Logan, we’ve been living with everyone for almost two months. Patton is literally going steady with Roman’s old best friend, I can’t remember how many times that I’ve caught Thomas eating my PopTarts and now you’re wanting to play doctor therapy on me?”

“Virgil, I, uh, I, I kinda maybe, ugh! Why is this so hard?”

Virgil grinned in the darkness. He couldn’t quite place what was making him so cheerful, but an unsure Logan was definitely helping his mood.

“Are you trying to admit that you have feelings?”

“No, _yes_ , I don’t know!”

“Well, in that case, I’d like to get back to sleep.” Virgil pushed Logan away from him and stood to get his pillow when Logan grabbed his hand.

“I just want to know why you stopped singing.”

Virgil used the hand Logan was gripping to pull him up and shoved him towards the door.

“GEt out.”

Logan cast a terrified look before quickly disappearing out of sight, quietly sneaking back to his room. Virgil snatched up his pillow from the hall and walked back to his bed, pulling the beat up PC from under his bed as he sat down and powered it up.

Logging in was easy and then opening up the internet browser was too. Virgil went to YouTube and typed in one channel.

_STORMCLOUD_

One video.

Sixty million views.

Over a million comments. Virgil opened the only video the account had, quickly muting it before Logan could hear. He started scrolling through the comments.

_-Stormcloud, come back!_

_-I just listened to this on repeat for like three hours. What the hell happened to Stormcloud?_

_-I know this kid hasn’t been around since 2016, but do you think he killed himself?_

_-@2019, anyone still listening?_

_-you know everyone still is_

_-Questa, bellissima! <3 _

_-Stormcloud, I know you only sang once, but damnnnnn, you should drop another vid._

_-Hey, with all the theories about Stormcloud, anyone think he... you know? Like I mean, the cuts on his arms were really prominent._

_-What cuts? He was wearing a hoodie._

_-2:37 his hoodie slips and you see his wrist, definite cuts._

_-Do you dumbasses watch the news? Stormcloud was almost fucking murdered. Then he drops one video and is almost killed again._

_-Not all of us get access to the YouTube spotlight._

_-Stormcloud, I hope you’re okay, wherever you are._

_-Hey loser, I’m glad you only posted one half assed video._

Virgil shut the tab with the video and sighed. He closed his eyes slowly and began to sing softly, completely unaware that Logan was listening on the other side. “I just wanna watch the birds up there, track the migratory patterns that they've flown--I wanna watch them from my chair, with my binoculars, my latte, and my phone.”

He didn’t finish the song, but instead his head lolled forward, sleep winning the battle.


	9. Taking photos of the guy you like while he's sleeping isn't creepy.  (yes it is.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan asks for help with people  
> chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a guy I went with one date on before I realized that I didn't really like dating people and also he was a narcissist. Anyway, he visited me after I got my wisdom teeth out after we "broke up" even though we were never going steady and he took a few photos of me in my horrible drugged but saliva bloodness and yeah, it wasn't very cool of him. He held so much power over me with those photos, threatening to show them to people, etc. and I'm not proud to admit that he still haunts my nightmares. I like to think that when Patton, Roman, Thomas and Janus took the photos they were doing it in a cute, aww, look he's sleeping, rather than a creepy ex, not ex way.  
> I had a restraining order put on him. I was in high school. Learn to recognize the warning signs of creeps an maybe you'll be a lot safer.   
> Also, maybe Sam's a self insert, but who knows? (my name is not Sam or Samantha)

For the first time in his life, Logan had absolutely no idea what he was doing. No idea what to do about one thing specifically, and that was Virgil.

It had started pretty innocently. In his stats class, there was a girl with really long purple hair that didn’t really seem like she fit in with the other students. She looked more like the college cliche of the kid who's always on campus, but actually runs a garage band. 

So naturally, Logan struck up a conversation with her. She had introduced herself as Sam and they made plans to hang out and just talk about the assignments.

And that’s how he had found out about Stormcloud.

Sam snapped her fingers in front of his face impatiently. “Wake up glasses. I don’t get this chart.”

Logan shook his head and looked down at the graph she was pointing at. “It’s a pie chart, right here is the average amount of what people spend on utilities and it takes up 15%, see right there, that number 15/100 is showing the function.”

“I know Lo, I was just testing to see if you were paying attention.”

“My apologies, I was just thinking about that video you showed me the other day.”

Sam nodded and closed her textbook before opening her laptop. “The Stormcloud one or the Halloween one with the guy dancing on top of someone else’s car?”

“The Stormcloud.”

“Why are you still thinking about it? It was like a one hit wonder type of thing. And yeah, he’s still considered one of the music world’s biggest cryptids and I can’t even tell you how many cover songs have been made of ‘Birds’ since he disappeared, but most people just chalk it up to him being dead.”

“So you think he was killed?”

Sam laughed. “Maybe. Why are you so concerned Logan Berry?”

“Not exactly concern, but more like curiosity.”

“Well, it was back in 2016, so if he was still around, he’d be our age. Or a year younger. And anyway, yeah people still listen to the song, there was whole news story covering gang violence in the area were people assumed he lived and yeah, a kid that looked oddly like him was on the news a week after the video was released, but correlation is not causation, and you of all people should know that.” Sam typed something in on her device and looked at Logan, her face creasing with worry.

“You look like you haven’t gotten any sleep recently.”

“I have not.”

“Spill.” Sam shut her laptop and rested her head in her hands, completely ready to listen to anything that Logan would say.

“I got into an argument with one of the guys who lives in the condo.”

“Oooh, is it the insufferable one with the red jacket?”

“Roman? What no. He and Janus argue enough that the rest of us are just giving them a wide berth. Most of their arguments are lighthearted.”

“Is it the kid with the sweater who calls everyone kiddo? Don’t tell me that he’s cheating on his boyfriend with you.” Sam said wide eyed.

“Also no. Patton and Janus are still dating.” Logan sighed and took off his glasses as he rubbed his eyes. “Do you want to listen, or should I go?”

“No, no, I’m listening.”

“It’s Virgil. I got into an argument with him and now he won’t talk to me.”

“How is this different from what’s already going on?” Sam asked.

“He, he’s really skittish, but also stands his ground? I don’t know, I get confused around him and flustered and I can’t get anything out right when I try to talk to him--” Logan buried his face in his hands, trying to force down the blush that was spreading across his cheeks and down his neck.

Sam put her hand on top of his head and patted it sympathetically. “I think you have a crush on the literal embodiment of anxiety and it makes you… anxious.”

“Can you advise me, what do I do?”  
“You’re on your own glasses. I’m ace and fine staying that way.” Sam patted Logan’s head again. “What was the fight about?”

“Him. He thinks he’s fine, but something’s eating him up and when I try to talk to him about it, he shuts down and kicks me out of his room.”

“Oh? Are you two sleeping together?”

“What, no. Gosh, I tell you that I walked in on Janus and Patton together one time and you think that we’re all just sleeping together.”

“You said it was like that one vine! you know, the one where the guy goes to scare his friend and it turns out that there’s two of them in the bed?”

“I am aware of the vine. Anyways, I may or may not have tried to talk to him a few times and now he won’t talk to me at all.”

“Logan, give it time. Look, your condo is the weirdest one on campus, like I mean you all look like the same person. But you guys aren’t. Look at the blue one’s boyfriend--”

“Patton.”

“Patton’s boyfriend. So what if he has a cane and a leg brace and a bunch of facial burns? He lived a different life than you. He was hurt growing up. And then the annoying red one loves singing, and I know  _ you _ don’t sing. Or even Virgil. He’s not you, so stop trying to help him how you would want to be helped and help him how he needs it.”

“I love how you didn’t mention Thomas.” Logan noted as he looked up from his hands.

“Honestly, Thomas being a slightly famous viner makes him the most normal out of all of you. Even if he is convincing his friends to run him down with a car.” Sam started packing her stuff into her backpack and Logan followed her lead.

“Do you have any plans tonight? Roman told me that I had to start having friends over or he’s bringing home his friend who’s apparently a club bouncer.”

“Oh yeah, I’m designated driver, like always, but there’s another ace at the bar we’re going to, so pretend couple so I don’t get hit on.”

“That’s nice of them.”

“Yeah we both were kinda sick of the creepers and so now I have a new friend. Good luck Logan.” Sam stood and slung her backpack on, leaving him alone at the picnic table that they’d been studying at.

His phone buzzed out a letter in morse code and he pulled it out of his pocket, surprised that Virgil had texted.

_ wet blanket: HEY, IT’S ROMAN, GET HOME ASAP. _

_ Logan: Why do you have Virgil’s phone? _

_ wet blanket: Hes sleeping on the couch and looks absolutely adorable you have to see it. _

_ Logan: It’s creepy to watch people sleep. _

_ wet blanket: When has that stopped you before? _

_ Logan: Why aren’t you texting me on your phone? _

_ wet blanket: Thomas and Patton are taking pictures of Virge with it.  _

_ Logan: Okay, I guess I was on my way back anyways. _

_ wet blanket: hurrrry Lo! _

Logan stood and started walking back to the condo, going a bit faster than he normally would have. 

On the way, he tried to convince himself that he was only going back to tell the others off for taking photos of someone who was trying to rest. Totally wasn’t going back because he liked Virgil or anything.

Ugh, he hated when feelings got in the way of logic. Logically, he wouldn’t,  _ shouldn’t _ even like him, with his dyed hair and hoodies, and how he was moody and sarcastic all the time.

When did love ever make sense? Logan fumbled with his keys, Roman had accidentally had four keys cut for each person when he went to get more copies, and unlocked the door, quietly tiptoeing in as the others waved at him silently.

Sure enough, in the ten minutes that it had taken him to jog back, Virgil had stayed asleep and Roman passed Logan his phone so he could scroll through the photos that had been taken.

“Hey, if you want any of them, I’ll send them over.”

“Don’t you think that Virgil is going to notice that you were texting with his phone?” Logan hissed back as he selected one and sent it to himself as Roman nodded approvingly at his choice.

“I deleted the messages and don’t worry, you’re at the top of his text list.”

“I haven’t texted him in almost two weeks.”

“He only has like seven threads going and it’s all just us. No other contacts in his phone either.”

“ _ Roman. _ you snooped?”

“Yeah. It’s not like figuring out his password was hard.” Roman shrugged and nodded back towards the couch, where Janus, Thomas and Patton were still taking photos, each of them taking a turn next to the sleeping figure. 

“Let me give you some advice before I go out for the night.” Roman tapped his phone on the table and grinned. “If you like him so damn bad, ask him out.”

“Roman, I--”

“I can see that you like him just fine Lo. And everyone knows you need a break. And a love life.”

“What about you?”

“Maybe I like Patton, or Janus, or you or Virgil or Thomas.” Roman pause for dramatic effect before continuing. “Or maybe I’m too busy bailing my brother out of jail every other weekend.”

“Ha ha.” Logan laughed quietly. Roman gently punched his arm and stood, waving bye to the others as he left.

Patton and Janus looked at Logan sitting at the table and grinned devilishly. Logan caught them staring.

“I don’t like that look on your faces.”

“Come on Thomas.” Patton pulled his boyfriend and Thomas away from the sleeping student and before they rushed upstairs, Janus tapped Virgil on the head with his cane.

“HPJNPMHMPH.” Virgil reached to swat away the cane, but instead fell off the couch.

Logan shot a look of panic at the stairs, but he was alone.

“Hey.”

Virgil sat up from the ground and squinted. “Hey?”

“Do you, would you accompany me to go get a drink?”  
“There’s water in the kitchen.” Virgil rubbed at his eyes. “Princey, you told me that you were going out with someone else.”

_ Oh. _

Virgil has mistook him for the bright and bubbly theater major. Logan pushed his glasses back into place and sighed.

“It’s me Virge, Logan.”

Virgil stopped and looked in his direction in bewilderment. “Since when do you drink?”

“Since right now. Do you want to come?”

“Someone’s gonna have to keep your head on straight.” Virgil muttered as he stood and nodded.

Logan smiled. “Well, that is… satisfactory.”

“Don’t say stuff like that, come on, lets go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!  
>  I promise that I'll explain why Virgil was almost murdered--twice-- but I need to go through another cycle of the roommates before we get to explanations. Roman's up next!


	10. Secrets (seriously, always have a backup plan)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman has a double life  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to add Remy  
> Roman POV
> 
> I have no idea how bars work. I mean, I've been in a few, but I still don't know how they work.

Roman wiped the glass from behind the counter, watching the patrons of the bar as they drank and talked.

“Hey Princey, you look lost in thought.” An older teen in a leather jacket adjusted his sunglasses and smirked.

“Maybe because I _am_ lost in thought Remy.” Roman threw his towel at his secret boyfriend and he caught it deftly.

“Well then are you going to tell me what you’re thinking about or am I going to have to force it out of you.” Remy leaned over the counter and Roman gently pushed him back.

“Customers have to stay on the other side of the counter.”

“Aww, you know that I work here on weekends girl.” Remy whined as he backed onto the stool across from Roman.

“You mean that you work him on weekends.” A patron looked away from his friend for a moment to quip at the pair.

“Ooh, he knows your secret.” Remy moved his sunglasses so that Roman could look him in the eyes. “What are you going to do about it?”

Roman shrugged. “Nothing. I don’t care as long as--”

The door opened and Roman’s head immediately shot up, eyes widening when Virgil and Logan walked in, both looking completely out of place in the grunge themed bar.

“Remy, can you cover my shift?”

“Like right now?”

“Like in the next three seconds. My roommates are here, and they don’t know I work here.”

Remy nodded and slid over the counter, letting Roman duck into the back room to hide.

“Heyyyyyyy sluts, how can I help you?” Remy’s voice floated back and Roman strained to hear what Virgil and Logan were saying.

“I don’t know, neither of us really drink.”

“You were drinking shots the second day Virgil.”

“That was Thomas’ idea.”

“Hurry up, I wanna take my smoking break.” Roman could imagine Remy impatiently drumming his fingers against the glass counter as Virgil and Logan were dorks. 

“Can you just give us something that’ll make us drunk?”

“You have a designated driver?”

“We’re going to get an Uber.”

The sound of something being poured and then Remy warning them that he wouldn’t be back for at least ten minutes.

Remy burst into the back room and sighed, a lovesick look on his face as he sat in the swivel chair that normally belonged to whoever was supposed to be on security.

“Damn, you never told me that Virgil was a perfect storm cloud.”

“ _Remy._ ” Roman scolded as his boyfriend laughed and scooted closer grabbing his hand.

“Oh my prince, you know that I’d never go for a Chemically Imbalanced Romance.” Remy grinned and kissed Roman’s knuckles, before pulling him down so that they were at eye level.

“Be honest with me.” Remy mumbled.

“Always.”

Remy’s eyes flashed with uncertainty as he wrapped his free hand around Roman’s shoulder. “Do they know?”

“They barely even know anything about Remus.”

“Would you tell them?”

Roman looked upward and thought about it for a moment. “If you kissed me, maybe.”

Remy rolled his eyes and quickly kissed Roman. “Now go and do your job slut.”

“I’m not a slut.” Roman protested as he stood and ruffled Remy’s hair.

“Hmmmm. I’ll be out in a minute.” 

Roman walked out to the bar, surprising both Logan and Virgil. He waved and offered them napkins and then did his rounds, before heading back to his spot behind the counter.

“So.” Virgil glanced at Roman and then down at his drink before looking back up. “How long have you worked here?”

“Since mid July.”

“What brought a theater nerd like you to work here? This doesn’t seem very in character for you.”

Roman’s mouth gaped open like a fish and he struggled for words when an arm snaked around him and Remy’s face nuzzled his neck. 

“It’s not out of character when he’s dating a bad boy.”

Roman snorted and shook his head at Logan and Virgil. “Remy’s the opposite of a bad boy.”

Both Logan and Virgil looked shocked and Roman couldn’t help but laugh. “Why do you guys look so surprised?”

Virgil leaned towards Logan. “I think I’m drunk.”

Logan patted the purple haired emo and nodded. “Yeah, let's go home.”

The pair stood and Logan reached for his wallet when Roman held up his hand. “It’s on the house, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

Once they had stumbled out, Roman turned to Remy. “My shift is over in an hour. Meet me at home?”

“I can wait.” Remy sat back in his stool and put his head on the counter, waiting as Roman shooed out patrons, swept the floor and cleaned the counters.

“Are you ready?”

“Yas giirrrllll.” Remy jumped up with way too much energy for someone at midnight and Roman followed him out, locking the bar down before walking with Remy to his apartment.

“Roman, do you have any plans for Halloween?”

“No. I’ll probably watch some movies with Patton and Janus.” Roman reached his hand out for Remy, who took it, swinging their hands as they walked.

“Am I invited?”

“Do you want to be?” Roman asked.

Remy tilted his head to the side and pondered it before nodding. “I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos?
> 
> Backstory: Roman needed a job so he could keep bailing Remus out of jail and whatnot, so he got a job at a bar as a bartender and that's where he met Remy. Remy loved the idea of a prince like person taking a job at a grunge themed bar and he started flirting with Roman every waking second. Roman hid the relationship from his roommates because he didn't want Remus finding out through the grapevine. So yeah, he's really defensive about his private life. Remy, on the other hand, is very very open about it all.  
> Roman spends weekends at Remy's because it's quieter and he can run lines without major scrutiny.


	11. Costumes and plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton finds out way too many things at once.  
> Chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw poor Logan, he can't snag a date  
> and then Virgil stole the coffee pot so he can't even have a proper wake up.  
> Normally I'd ramble right here, but I'm not really feeling up to it.

Patton woke up earlier than usual and stumbled out of his bed. Normally, on Saturdays, he’d sleep in late and then watch cartoons downstairs with anyone else who wanted to join, before going grocery shopping for the week with the list that Thomas or Roman usually put together. 

But not today! Today, Thomas had promised to do the grocery shopping so that he and Janus could spend all day looking for Halloween costumes. And for one thing, he was ridiculously excited for the holiday so that he could take advantage of the college’s free dress code policy. Patton voted to wear his cat sweater instead of just tying it around his shoulders as he bounced downstairs to the kitchen.

Logan was up, with a thermos of tea next to him as he jumped from his textbook to his phone, no doubt texting the only other person he’d seen him hang out with.

“Good morning!”

Logan looked up, and nodded. “Morning.”

“Have you seen Virgil?”

“He stole the coffee pot and went back to his room. Something about a massive hangover.” Logan typed something into the calculator and then wrote the number down, before taking a sip of his drink.

Patton went to the fridge and opened it, pulling out the muffins that he had baked yesterday, opening the bag and pulling out three before going to join Logan back at the table.

“Is Roman up yet?”

Logan choked on his drink and Patton reached out a hand in worry before the other waved him off.

“He hasn’t been back since last night.”

“Oh. He said that he was going to go costume shopping with me and Janus.” Patton took a bite out of his muffin and grinned. “Unless, he found someone and won’t be back for awhile, I could just leave.”

Logan’s ears went cherry red and he pressed his pencil onto the paper so hard that the tip snapped, lead flicking up. “I wouldn’t worry about Roman.”

“Oh? Can I worry about you? How did your date go with Virgil?”

“It didn’t really go anywhere, we’re still not really talking. And it wasn't a date.”

“Aww, but I want analogical to happen, how can it happen if you two aren’t talking?” Patton whined as Logan looked up at him with confusion.

“What on earth is ‘analogical’?”

Patton beamed. “It’s my ship name for you and Virgil!”

“Ship?”

“Oh my gosh, a ship is when you pair two people together because you think that they’d be cute together! Like the one for me and Janus is Moceit. I made it ” Patton pulled out his phone and showed Logan the text thread he had with his boyfriend, with their names being Morality and Deceit, respectively.

“So why Analogical?”

“Well, Virgil is like the embodiment of anxiety and you’re really logical. Analogical. Originally, I _was_ rooting for Prinxiety, but then I realized that Roman really just likes bantering with everyone and he totally wasn’t into Virgil _at all_ , but you get all cute and blushy around him, like one of those cheesy movies that Thomas keeps having us watch. The classic cliche of the smart one falling for the dark one.”

“I do not.” Logan said indignant. Patton shrugged and ate some more of his muffin. “Only if you say so.”

“I do say so. Geez Patton.”

“Okay, I’ll lay off if you show me your phone’s lock screen and home screen. If it’s that one girl from your stats class, I’ll believe that you don’t like Virgil, and that you only have photos of your friends.”

Logan sighed and handed over his phone. Patton pressed the home button, watching it light up to see that it was in fact, the purple haired girl and Logan on the lock screen, both of them with easy smiles on their faces as she had one arm wrapped around him.

“Password?” 

“Eight, four, thirteen.”

Patton punched it in, face lighting up with delight as he saw the home screen. It was a photo of Virgil, but a younger one, and it looked like it had been cropped from a different source.

“Where’d you get this photo?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Logan reached for his phone, but Patton held it away from him, a teasing grin on his face.

“I got it from YouTube. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Virgil seems like the last person to have a Youtube account. Or to be on YouTube in someone else's video.”

Logan ducked his head nervously. “It only had one video on it. But Patton, please don’t tell him, it’s one of his PTSD triggers and I don’t want him to know that I know.”

“What’s the channel name?”

“Stormcloud.” Logan whispered.

Patton’s eyes widened briefly and he handed the phone back silently. Logan nodded in thanks and hid the phone away, an embarrassed flush across his face.

“Sorry about that Lo.” Patton stood and offered him one of the muffins and Logan shook his head.

“I’m good, thank you though. Please don’t tell anyone Patton.”

“Of course, you may have figured out who one of the internet’s biggest cryptids is, but that’s not my place to tell.” Patton shrugged. “You’ll have to tell him that you know eventually.”

“Oh don’t remind me.” Logan grumbled. "I'm just _ecstatic_ for when I have to."

“Well, I’m going to text Roman and if he doesn’t respond, I’m stealing Janus and going costume shopping.”

“Roman’s not going to respond. Trust me.” Logan shooed him off with one had

“Okayyyy.” Patton rushed upstairs and burst into Janus’s room, tossing the muffins at Janus, who grumbled as he sat up and pulled his leg brace from under the bed.

“Hey Morality.”

“Good morning Janus.” Patton smiled as he sat on the bed next to him, waiting patiently as Janus put the brace on and stretched.

“Are we still going to go get costumes? Cause maybe I just wanna stay home.”

“But then what would you wear for Halloween?” Patton asked teasingly. Janus rolled his eyes and reached for his cane, picking it up and gently rapping his boyfriend on the head. 

“I could go as Two Face. Ready made costume.”

“Does that mean I get to be Batman?”

“You look horrible in black.” 

“Hmmmmm.” Patton grinned and shrugged, humming as Janus leaned against him. “Can I be Poison Ivy then?”

Janus laughed and threaded his free hand with Patton’s. “Then we should get going if we’re going to find you a wig and dress.”

“yay” Patton murmured, “I should probably tell you that Roman isn’t coming.”

“Oh yeah, probably cause he’s sleeping with his boyfriend.” Janus said nonchalantly. 

Patton sat straight up.  _ “WHAT?” _

“You didn’t find it suspicious that he’s literally never around for weekends?”

“But he’s always back for cartoons?”

“Oh you sweet summer child.” Janus leaned and kissed Patton on the cheek, holding back laughter. “One day you’ll get it.”

“I… I, oh my gosh, I can’t believe Roman didn’t tell me. Everyone tells me everything.” Patton stammered.

“Well, I only found out because I caught him sneaking in at three am once. And when I heard that Logan and Virgil decided to go out drinking, which is totally not Logan’s style, I knew they were going to find out and so I kinda… forgot that you didn’t know.” Janus shook his head. “Sorry.”

“It’s all good. Can we go get my Poison Ivy outfit now?” Patton gave Janus puppy dog eyes, and Janus laughed.

“Okay, okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and the muffins were never found.
> 
> kudos? comments? Janus POV next up.


	12. It's me, but *classy*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shopping  
> chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aka, the chapter I gave up in.
> 
> costume shopping is so fun, but I always have a hard time finding a good costume for a good price and I'm not about ready to blow fifty dollars on that zero suit samus suit I've been wanting to buy so that I can start building the samus exoskeleton that I've been drawing plans up for years and you know what, I'm rambling again.

“You know, I’d probably be more accepted if I did go as Two Face.” Janus moved a rack of cheap costumes and looked at Patton, grinning widely as he held up the trademark tie of the supervillian.

“But you go as Two Face every day.” Patton pouted and waved his sweater sleeves at Janus. “That’d be like me going as Dad for halloween.”

“What if I bought scrubs at the nearby store and adapted them into one of those terrible ‘sexy nurse’ costumes?” Janus threw one of the costumes at Patton, who squealed as he fumbled to catch it. “And then with your costume, we’ll match.”

“That doesn’t even make sense. I said that I was going as Poison Ivy as a joke.”

Janus tilted his head and shrugged. “I just thought of a really horrible idea.”

“Ooh, what?”

“What if we all, as in our whole apartment, just dressed up as each other? Like, Roman could go as me, I could go as Logan, you and Thomas switch places and then Virgil gets cursed as Roman for a day.”

“Could you pretend to be really smart for a day though?”

“Patton!” Janus held a hand to his heart, offended. “You’re talking to a biochem major.”

“Biochemistry is way different than statistics.”

“True, one involves humans and the other requires the ability to read skewed graphs to make predictions.”

“Logan would murder you if he heard you say that. He gets all protective about his graphs.”

“What if he went as a graph for halloween? We could pick up some poster boards and home make them.”

“I don’t know, don’t you think that Logan would get  _ board _ of it though?”

Janus smiled and shook his head as he threw another costume at Patton. “Do you actually think that?”

“No, I just wanted to make the pun.”

“Okay, I was just checking in sweetie.” Janus tossed one last costume at Patton, before limping over to stand next to him.

He’d chosen to forgo the cane on their excursion to the mall, not wanting to draw more attention than he normally did when entering a room, especially now, with Patton shining bright enough to light the entire eastern seaboard.

Patton held up one of the costumes, a cheap looking robber’s outfit and smiled. “Who would pay forty dollars for this?”

“I’d pay forty for it, look, it even comes with a fake set of plastic handcuffs.”

“I thought that you had a pair of real handcuffs.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s Virgil.”

“Really?”

“Well, I mean, probably.” Janus shifted through the other costumes and shook his head. “I have a bowler hat and a black and yellow cape, why don’t I just wear those?”

“What would you be going as?”

“ _ Classy Janus. _ ” Janus spread his hands out dramatically, as if the name was written in glittering lights.

Patton stifled a giggle and put the costumes back before they both walked out. It was, surprisingly, a busy saturday and the mall was full of people and friends hanging out and getting ready for Halloween. 

“Do you want to get a pretzel? We could bring them back for everyone in the condo, like as a, ‘we missed you and this is our really passive aggressive way of saying you should come next time.’ I think that it’d be sweet.”

“Patton, that’s really dark, even for you.” 

“Mmmmmhmmmmm.” Patton hummed as he pulled out his phone and checked the time, showing the screen to Janus. 

3:15.

They’d spent all day walking around and had accomplished absolutely nothing. And Janus realized with a start, that he liked it that way.

He wrapped an arm around Patton and together they walked, simply enjoying the company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos for the trashy chapter?


	13. the witching hour (the devils hour?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Halloween morning!  
> chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love having full on texting conversations with myself to fill the void. Wow, I'm sure one day I'll have people text me as much as these guys text each other.

ROOMIES<3 5:00 A.M.

Thomas: Anyone still up?

Logan: I just got up, if that’s what you mean.

Thomas: No, I meant if anyone was still up.

Logan: That, that is incredibly unhealthy Thomas, you should really be getting more rest.

wet blanket: five am- the witching hour

Logan: I could be wrong, but I believe that’s midnight.

wet blanket: five am, the devil’s hour

Logan: Now, I’m pretty sure that’s three A.M.

wet blanket: logan.

wet blanket: go suck an egg

DAD<3: hold on to your horses.

DAD<3: Get it? I’m telling you to be stable!

Logan: …

wet blanket: i get it

wet blanket: thats actually kinda funny

DAD<3: Thanks Kiddo!

wet blanket: youre welcome?

DAD<3: Anyone have any Halloween plans!?!?!?!?!?

Logan: I was invited to a party and I’m still contemplating how badly I’ll hurt Sam’s feelings if I don’t show up.

wet blanket:  _ dude _

Princey: I woke up to tell you that’s horrible.

Princey: Remy says that ur being tactless.

Logan: Ouch guys.

wet blanket: youre the one who literally was debating whether or not you should ditch your friends party.

Logan: Oh, I see how that may be a problem.

Logan: I don’t have a costume.

DAD<3: It’s okay! Janus and I made you one!

Logan: What? 

DAD<3: Yeah, instead of us making costumes, we made you one!

Logan: I’m very flattered Patton.

Janus: We spent like ten minutes on it

DAD<3: You’ll love it!

Thomas: So, what are you guys going to do?

DAD<3: I have a cat onesie!

Janus: me, but classy.

wet blanket: im just putting in some vampire implants that go over my regular canines. i wear them when im frustrated

Princey: I have rehearsals all day, so I’m already going to be in costume.

Thomas: I don’t have a costume planned

Thomas: but my friend said he’d bring me a blow up T-Rex.

DAD<3: OH I LOVE THOSE!!

wet blanket: can we all just acknowledge that we’re all up and just camping in our rooms texting each other instead of going and talking face to face

Princey: Speak for yourself, I’m not here.

Janus: You don’t count, you spend your weekends with Remy

Princey: *offended prince noises* That's what Roman is sounding like rn, he's mad I stole his phone and now I'm texting you guys while keeping him at arms length. XD 

wet blanket: im going back to sleep for at least another half hour its only six thirty

DAD<3: Good morning then!

Thomas: I guess I’ll see you soon?

wet blanket: something like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos?  
> also, no one saying anything about Remy stealing Roman's phone is comedy gold.


	14. "close enough." (no ur not, you dummy, get some sleep, why have you been staying up so late?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil goes to the wrong class and it's Halloween.  
> chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when you show your fic to your sister and she demands a character so you write in one that literally only shares her nick name and nothing else, but she didn't understand who Virgil was and so when you showed her a photo, her response was 'oh he's hot.' and that was too funny to not include in the narrative, so you obliged to her self insert.
> 
> my favorite ship is Prinxiety, but my favorite to write is Analogical. Also, I don't really ship canon Janus and Patton, I feel like Patton's just everyone's dad and I'd rather have janus stay single pringle forever, but I like my misunderstood Janus who's hiding and lying to preserve a relationship rather than just lying to gain kudos but still is misunderstood.

Virgil slid the fake tooth in, where it made a satisfying click as the binding glue fit over the original tooth perfectly.

Boom. Emo vampire costume done. Now he could deflect Patton’s insistence and anyone else who would tell him that he wasn’t part of the Halloween spirit. Which was just a horrible thing to say, he was always a part of the Halloween spirit and he didn’t need an entire day to tell him that wearing purple and wicked eyeshadow was okay.

He grabbed his backpack, slinging it down the stairs as he walked out of his room and down to the main area, where Janus and Patton were helping Logan into what looked like a sandwich board and Thomas was sitting on the couch in a halfway blown up costume.

“Okay…” Virgil muttered as he cautiously walked around the couch, trying not to run into anyone.

“Virgil!” Patton beamed at him and flourished one hand at Logan’s costume. “Do you like it? He’s a good graph, bad graph!”

“One side is just a horribly inaccurate scatterplot and the other is an equally inaccurate bar graph Patton.” Logan sighed and adjusted his glasses, moving awkwardly while being stuck between two poster boards.

“It annoys Logan and I think that’s what counts.” Virgil flashed a grin and then finished working his way to the front door, grabbing his shoes and just before he was about to make the daring escape of the morning, Patton called him back in.

“Guys, we have to take a picture!”

Dinosaur Thomas nodded, his head hitting the light fixture as they all walked outside, joining Virgil on the front step.

“Wait, who do you have planned to take the picture? I have class that starts in five minutes and I’m still a ten minute walk from campus.”

“Virgil, do you even remember what class it is?” Logan asked, stumbling forward a bit as his foot caught the concret.

“No, but it’s important, otherwise I wouldn’t be trying to get to it.”

“What kind of person even has class on Saturdays?” Patton asked, swiveling his head around to look at Virgil.

“Me.” Logan said at the _exact_ same time as Janus, Thomas and Logan.

“Well, I stand corrected!” Patton blurted cheerfully, already rebounding from the mistake.

They all stood awkwardly for a moment before Virgil pushed past and broke up the group. “Bye.”

“BYE!” Patton waved excitedly as Virgil took off, trying hard not to completely book it until he had turned the corner and was out of sight.

He’d made it about fifteen feet before the sound of poster board flapping together caught up to him and Logan ran next to him, panting.

“You move scarily fast.”

“I could hear you coming, so I picked up the pace.” Virgil said.

“Oh.” 

“You look like one of those temps in a sandwich shop that gets assigned to advertising so that you’ll quit and give the staff a break.” Virgil quipped.

Logan shot an appreciative look at him and stopped walking. “That was surprisingly well put together.”

“I’ve been thinking it out since Patton mentioned it.”

“I’m really proud of you Vamp.”

“You noticed!” Virgil exclaimed, face brightening as he smiled and bared his teeth proudly. Logan laughed softly and adjusted his passenger bag, which he was carrying awkwardly as not to mess up the posters.

“Hey Lo, I can hold your bag.” Virgil held out his hand and Logan hesitantly placed the strap in his outstretched hand.

“You’re welcome.” Virgil put the bag on and they walked to Logan’s first class, passing people in costume and an abnormally large group of people in the blow up T-Rex costumes.

Virgil walked with him all the way to the glass doors before reluctantly handing back his bag.

“See you for the party tonight?”

“It’ll probably be insufferable, but I guess I’ll come, but I have the right to leave at any moment, for any reason.”

“That is reasonable.” Logan smiled and went inside, leaving Virgil to run to his class, stumbling in late and collapsing in a desk in the back.

“Is this theoretical physics?”

The girl with a pixie cut next to him shook her head. “Intro to U.S. History.”

Virgil grunted. “Eh, close enough. Wake me up when it’s all over.” He slumped forward on the desk and closed his eyes, barely paying attention until the shaking at his shoulder woke him up.

“Hey, emo nightmare, wake up.”

“Hurghh.” 

“It’s been five hours.”

“ _WHAT_.” Virgil sat straight up and rubbed at his eyes, looking at the girl with blurry vision. “Did you come back for me?”

“No, it was long lecture day. You did get up at lunch and ate.” The girl waved her hand in front of his face, a look of concern crossing it when Virgil didn’t respond.

“Have you been getting enough sleep?”

“Have any of us?”

“Good point. Also, you have great fake teeth. Reminds me of my sister, she didn’t wear a costume either.”

“What’s her name?”

“Sam. She’s so annoying, let me tell you, never coming back to our shared space, always out playing the--”

“Wait, from stats?”  
“Oh, you’re a stats major? Now that I think of it, you’re kinda cute, can I get your number?” The girl held out her phone and Virgil shook his head.

“I’m really gay. And I’m not in the stats class, I haven’t decided my major. She told… she told my friend that she was having a party and he invited me through her and I’m probably late and I don’t know where it is.”

The girl deflated for a moment before brightening again. “She was only invited because she has a good karaoke machine and speakers. I can text you the address, but I’ll need your phone number.”

“Could you just write it on my arm or something? I’m uncomfortable with people having my number.”

The girl pulled out a sharpie and grabbed Virgil’s hand, pulling it over and then pushing his sweatshirt sleeve up so she could write down the address. She didn’t flinch at the cut scars and she quickly wrote the address in a loopy scrawl before capping her pen and putting it away.

“Go have fun I guess, and tell my sister that Jess said hi and that she should get home at a reasonable time.” Jess pulled out a stick of gum from her pocket and popped it in, giving Virgil a two fingered salute before grabbing her purse and leaving him alone in the classroom. 

Virgil pulled up his sleeve and typed the address, watching as the map pulled up a location only three blocks away from campus.

First party in like seven years, here he comes. Virgil sighed to an empty classroom and stood, resigning himself to whatever may happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! hey! hey!  
> stormcloud bombshell next chapter, I made a promise. out of my three plot arcs, I like the analogical arc the most. (also, what would you even call the roman/remy ship? RemPrince? SleePrince?)
> 
> kudos?  
> comments?


	15. Pipeline Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> analogical.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love karaoke. and I love a two+ month slow burn, mmmph, I love fanfiction.
> 
> TW(s): Suicide mention, Abuse mention, Murder mention, anxiety mention, panic attack mention, fluff.
> 
> thanks to my discord, who gave me advice on writing the ending area.

Logan got to the party at the same time as Sam, mostly because she gave him a ride over so that he could help her with the speakers.

“Is your Panic at the Everywhere coming? I’m looking forward to meeting your emo crush.” Sam handed Logan a speaker from her trunk, nervousness flashing across her face as he almost dropped it.

“He doesn’t panic everywhere.” Logan protested as they carried in the first set of speakers, setting them just inside the doorway.

“I’ve read your texts, he  _ totally  _ does panic everywhere.”

“ _Sammmmmm_ , those were private.”

“Nothing’s private nowadays. But I digress. Is he coming?” Sam bared her fangs and grinned. “My sister texted me at lunch and said that someone who looked like a purple, vampire version of you was in her Intro to U.S. History class. I assume it was a reluctant Virgil?”

Logan frowned and pulled another speaker out of the car. “He doesn’t even take a history class.”

Sam shrugged. “How would I know his schedule? Also, do you like how instead of having all purple hair, it’s brown with pink tips? I’ve been waiting for you to notice all day.”

“Hmm, yeah, it looks good.” Logan mumbled without looking over as they carried in the second load of speakers, pausing in the hall to shrug off his poster boards and loosen his tie so that he could breathe better.

“You didn’t even look. What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing.”

Sam handed him the last speaker as she pulled out the karaoke machine, shutting her car trunk and leaning against it. “Liar, you’re always thinking about something and tonight’s  _ no  _ different. Spill now or I’m charging you five dollars to go inside the house and then I’m changing your phone name from Logan to Left Brain.”

Logan sighed and set his speaker down, crossing his arms in a closed off position. “I don’t know how to talk to someone who’s always pushing others away. Everything that I’ve tried has failed in some way or the other! I even ditched a class when he texted me and said that he was having a panic attack from some PTSD trigger that he was having! I don’t know how to reach him, Sam and it  _ scares _ me.”

“The great Logan Berry scared by emotion? I’m surprised.” Sam popped her fake teeth out and clenched her fist. “Sorry, I can’t take myself seriously when I look like a vampire. So you don’t know how to deal with feelings and that confuses you. Which is 100% valid. You’ve lived a chill life, one where logic owns the stage and emotion can take a backseat. I know how that feels, we’re stats kids, remember?”

Logan nodded. “Yeah, but you don’t like anyone.”

“I like people, just platonically. Friendships are just as much as a minefield as crushes. Gosh, people  _ do not  _ understand asexuality. Moving on. Do you see yourself as Virgil’s friend?”

Logan thought back over the past two months, late nights texting, sneaking downstairs early in the morning only to find that Virgil had found his way to the cereal first and how much time that he’s spent with him.

“I think so.”

“Logan, don’t ever think something,  _ know it.  _ If you see yourself as his friend, then you should tell him how you feel. Either he’ll crush your soul in a horrible way, or he’ll let you down gently, or maybe in the off chance that he fell in love with a dumbass nerd like you, he’ll admit it back.”

“Are you telling me that there’s no way to predict how this is going to go?”

Sam hefted her karaoke machine and slipped her fake incisors back in. “Love isn’t your graph costume-- which was very well made by the way-- it’s messy and complicated and that’s why people get hooked. Food for thought. Hopefully I’ll see you around? I have to finish setting up this party.”

“Okay.”

Sam nodded and gave him a smile. “Good luck Logan.” She took a few steps toward the house before whirling around again. “One question. Has the blue one made any puns about your last name yet?”

“As far as Patton’s concerned, my last name is not a fruit.”

This coaxed a laugh out of Sam and she waved goodbye before disappearing inside the house, leaving Logan standing in the driveway with a speaker and a whole lot of nervousness.

The party was in full swing and it was getting dark when Logan ducked outside for a breather. Virgil hadn’t shown up and now Logan was getting slightly restless as the night went on.

As he walked out the front door, a figure on the front steps caught his eye.

“Virgil?”

Virgil looked up at him. “Hey.”

“What are you doing outside the front door?” Logan sat next to him, shivering as the cool air sank in.

“I’m charging people five dollars to get in. It’s something that Janus told me that he did when he was in highschool.”

“Are you going to come in?”

“As long as you don’t make me do karaoke, then I will. And I get to leave when I’m ready.” Virgil passed Logan a crumpled five dollar bill. “Here’s my entry fee.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t smell it, it’s probably soaked in weed.” Virgil stood and held out a hand to pull Logan up, who took it gratefully. 

“You take the lead, I haven’t been to a party in ages.” Virgil let Logan go in first, trailing behind him as he searched for Sam.

“Who are you looking for?” Virgil practically yelled over the sounds of the party as he tailed Logan, one hand nervously on his shoulder as he was dragged through the crowd.

“My friend from class!” Logan spotted her by one of the speakers, casually talking to a person next to her as the speakers as someone a few feet away was belting out a song, halfway drunk.

“Sam!”

She whipped her head towards Logan and Virgil, breaking into a smile when she located where their voices were coming from.

“Hey Logan! I’m glad to see that your friend decided to show up. I’m Sam, I think you met my sister!”

Logan stepped aside to let Virgil join the circle and Sam stuck out her hand for Virgil to shake.

“Yeah, she flirted with me. She also told me to tell you to be home at a reasonable hour.”

“She’s definitely a character. Really good at the drums, can’t sing worth anything and I share an apartment with her.” Sam shrugged and took a drink from the cup that she was holding. “Most people think that this is alcohol, but it’s actually a can of minestrone soup that I found in the kitchen.”

“Okay….” Logan glanced at Virgil, who was holding back a laugh. 

“Logan told me that you sing. Is that true?” 

Sam nodded. “I sing contralto for the band I’m in, makes it so I can play bass guitar and sing as backup. How about you emo? You have any hobbies worth noting?”

Logan could feel Virgil blanch and he quickly interceded before Sam could pressure him more than she already was.

“Are you going to do karaoke?” 

“Course not, I’m only by the machine so that no one breaks it while in a drunken stupor. I’d hate to have to buy another one. But I’ll sing if one of you does.”

“Pass.” Virgil gently punched Logan in the arm. “That means you.”

“Fine, but I can’t sing, so it’s going to suck.” Logan gave in, sighing in defeat.

“Nobody will notice, basically everyone’s drunk or high. I’ll go first.” Sam walked up to the karaoke machine and whacked the current user off, before tapping the microphone against her hand.

“Any suggestions?”

Someone called out something that Logan couldn’t hear and he turned to Virgil, awkwardly wringing his hands.

“So, Sam really is something?”

“Yeah, I’m glad that you’re friends with more than just the people in the condo.” Virgil smiled at him and Logan nodded, swallowing as he worked up the courage for more than small talk.

“Uh, Virgil?”

“Hm?”

“I like you.”

Virgil took a moment to process what he’d said before turning beet red. “What?”

“I said that I like you.”

“Oh. It’s your turn to sing Logan.” Virgil gave him a gentle push to the front and when Logan made it up and turned around, the purple haired emo was gone.

Logan picked the shortest song he could find, and once he was done, he had to wait an hour for most the people to either leave or get kicked out so that he could help carry out the speakers.

Sam dropped him off and he thanked her before using the key under the doormat to let himself in.

The house was dark and quiet and he was easily able to sneak to his room and collapse on the bed, defeated.

Logan pulled out his phone and opened his message app.

Logan: He ditched me after I told him.

Sam: No way!

Logan: I feel really bad now.

Sam: sorry for leading you on like that. I really was rooting for you two.

Logan: It wasn’t your fault.

Sam: Maybe he was just nervous?

Logan: He would have just told me.

Sam: True, true

Sam: Are you sure that he wasn’t just panicking from the crowd? There was like a hundred people crammed in there.

Logan: I don’t know.

Logan: I’m going to just sleep and hope that this was all just a Halloween nightmare.

Sam: Good luck w/ that.

…

….

_ November 1st 3:30 A.M. _

Sam: LOGAN

Sam: LOGAN WAKE TF UP.

Sam: LOGANNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Logan: What the hell? 

Logan: What is it?

Sam: I got a notification from the Stormcloud channel.

Sam: It’s already number one on trending.

Sam: He put out another video.

Sam: GO WATCH IT.

Logan: Okay, okay.

Logan: I’m turning off your incoming texts, so I’ll text you in the morning.

Sam: I’m emailing you the link.

Logan: Thank you.

It took him a few minutes to locate his laptop from his bag and then another few to pull out his charger and plug it into the outlet next to his bed so he could watch it in bed. Sure enough, Sam had emailed him the link, with the email title in all caps, screaming at the importance of the video.

Logan cupped his hands over his mouth as he opened the link.

Stormcloud.

One new video, the first in four years.

Logan, heart hammering, clicked play.

It was the background of a soundproof room, and currently no one was on camera, but shuffling was heard and a moment later, a swivel chair was pushed into view and then Virgil, in his massive hoodie came into sight, carrying a beautiful mahogany colored ukulele as he sat down and flipped his dyed hair out of his face.

“Concerning the rumors of me, and what happened four years ago, yes I was not in a mentally safe place and I tried to take my own life October 15th. I…” Virgil looked down and sighed before looking back up uncertainty. “I was talked out of it. By a mugger who immediately tried to stab me, so yeah, it wasn’t the best day. I wrote Birds and then released the video here, and I was not expecting my channel to blow up like this.” 

Virgil looked down again and strummed a chord on the ukulele before continuing. “I was almost killed by someone who recognized me from the video, and someone who my family owed a debt to. So I laid low, turned off my musical side. I was not expecting you all to become so invested in this, in what I did, and I really thank you for your concern.”

Logan watched as Virgil took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous quirk that Logan had long noticed on the first day that they’d met.

“I really wasn’t going to come back here. Not after all that had happened in the space of two months. And then, I met five people, which is surprising, since I shut everyone out. Yeah… and then I did the unexpected, and I found out that I really, kinda maybe sorta fell in love with one? I don’t know, life is messy. Happy November First everyone. And, I wrote this song for my favorite nerd. You know who you are.” 

Logan smiled softly as Virgil brought his ukulele up and strummed the opening chords.

If anything, in the past four years, his voice had matured and Logan had to hold back tears as the voice wrapped around in a perfect melody.

“Pipeline dreams is where it all stems from--

My pipeline dreams is where it all went wrong.

I lived my pipeline dreams for far too long-

And I didn’t know who I had until you were almost gone.

My vision was funneled,

I guess you could say that I was cold,

Living a lie that no one wanted to be told.

It was a pipeline dream,

A comfort to hide

Who i truly was, 

_ am  _

Inside.

You taught me all I need to know,

From defining words to telling me when I need to... take it slow.

You broke me from my pipeline dream,

You showed me that I could be me.

Life before you was so cold.

Life before was a pipeline dream.

Life before I chose to break free.

Because, I’m not afraid anymore

To stop living in a pipeline dream.

It’s funny how when we first met,

It was you pushing me down the stairs.

And all those late, late nights,

Tapping out morse code,

Against the thin walls.

While I was wondering what the beat of your heart would feel like

If we let our hands intertwine,

Let my feelings sink

Right through that left brain of yours.

And I was wondering 

What it would be like if I told you how I felt,

That you weren’t some broken pipeline dream.

You broke my pipeline dream,

You’re teaching me how to be me.

Life before you was so cold.

Life before was a pipeline dream.

Life before I chose to break free.

Because, I’m not afraid anymore

To stop living in a pipeline dream.

That pipeline dream,

Pipeline dream.”

The video cutscreened to Virgil again, who had changed from the black hoodie to a purple one and had ditched the ukulele.

“So, anyway, I hope you guys are all doing okay, and you probably won’t see another video like this for another four years, this was just me letting you know that I’m somehow still breathing.” Virgil waved and then the video cut to black, no end card, just autoplay loading the next video.

Logan shut the computer gently and got off his bed. It was only four A.M. so the likelihood of Virgil being up was low to none, but he had uploaded the video at midnight, which explained why he had ducked out from the party early.

He walked out of his room and practically floated to Virgil’s where the door was slightly ajar.

He went to knock, but the door was thrown open and Virgil grabbed Logan by his tie and dragged him in, the door swinging shut behind them.

“So, you liked it?”

“I like you Virge.” Logan whispered. Virgil’s eyes widened and with shaking hands he cupped Logan’s face.

“I think I really want to kiss you right now.” 

“I think that that’d be really spectacular.” Logan mumbled, as Virgil pulled him close, hands moving from his face to his hair as their noses touched.

“I’ve never kissed anyone, I have no idea what I’m doing.” Virgil admitted as he pulled back, blinking nervously as he focused on Logan.

Logan nodded slightly. “I’ve never kissed anyone either, but I’m willing to give up my ‘virgin lips’ status to you.”

And that’s when Virgil kissed him.

It was slow, tentative, scared. And yet, it was caring and loving, something that Logan was not expecting, compared to how harsh Virgil often was. It was over faster than he would have expected, and when Logan pulled away, he blinked twice.

“ _ Wow. _ ” Logan mumbled, reaching his hand up to trail down Virgil’s face, laughing nervously as they backed away from each other.

“Maybe, we… take it slow? And not tell anyone that we, you know?” Virgil ducked his head and even in the dark, Logan could tell that he was embarrassed for even mentioning anything. Logan reached out and grabbed Virgil’s hands.

“I understand. For once Virgil, I’m on the same wavelength as you. I’ll see you in the morning?”

Virgil reluctantly let go of his hands and nodded. “Thank you.”

Logan gave him one last reassuring smile and backed out of the room, going back to his room to rest before morning.

He’d been laying on his bed for maybe fifteen minutes when his door creaked open and Virgil snuck in, pressing a finger to Logan’s back and prompting him to scoot over so that he could join him.

“Thanks.”

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end song, pipeline dreams was written by me! I'm still having my sister write the ukulele chords, but I'm hoping to get it published soon with the chords so that anyone with a ukulele can learn to play!  
> Love you all and thanks for reading!
> 
> kudos? comment?


	16. Choking on the past.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman has his first performance!  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started writing this I knew that I was going to get Remy and Remus confused. So I had one of the characters do the mixup for me. (sorry virgil)  
> TW: abuse, mild panic attack, ptsd trigger(s), swearing.

Roman was in the wings, heart pounding, stomach fluttering with the nervous tension that only came on the seconds before his cue was called and was time to dazzle onstage. There was a tap on his shoulder and Roman looked to the left to see the stage manager, tapping his clipboard impatiently.

“You’re going to need to do some stalling, Emilie’s dress ripped and we have someone doing a quick stitch, but it’s still five minutes out.”

“Okay, thanks.” Roman straightened his sash and cape, prepared for his cue, prepared to grace the stage in a way that only a prince could.

There was a crashing sound onstage and Roman ran out.

It was go time.

He was flawless, as always, and once the show was over, Roman wandered around backstage, waiting for the crowds to clear before anyone could start cleaning up and dressing down into normal clothes. 

“Roman? Someone’s asking to see you?” One of the stagehands ducked their head in through the auditorium’s door, face pale.

“I already did the meet and greet, technically I don’t need to go back out.”

“I believe his exact words were ‘get out here girl or I’ll find a way to sneak back here myself.’ I don’t want to be liable for him, Roman.” 

Roman felt his face flush as he jumped off the stage. “Thanks, I’ll take care of him.”

“There’s actually six of them, but only one spoke.”

His roommates. _and Remy._ Roman rushed up the aisle and burst out the doors, almost barreling into the group.

“You came!”

“Well kiddo, I made sure that we all came, gotta support each other!” Patton held out a bouquet of sunflowers and Roman took it, smiling.

“The flowers were my idea.” Janus said proudly as he tapped Roman’s shoulder with his cane. 

“I love them guys. It’s so much better than when Remus brought me rotting tomatoes.”

Virgil turned to Remy, disappointment shining on his face. “You really did that to our roommate?”

Remy held his hands up defensively. “I’m not Remus, I’m Remy and there’s a difference between us. I would never do something like that, so stand down you emo bitch.”

Virgil scoffed and lunged for Remy, but Logan put his arm in front of him and to Roman’s surprise, the purpled haired counterpart backed down.

“Sorry Roman. Your play was cool.” Logan nodded curtly. “The vocals were amazing and the acting was on point. This was a satisfactory use of my time.”

“Thank you.”

Remy put an arm around Roman and pulled him close, the obvious show of affection drawing a blush from him that was invisible from the stage makeup covering his face like a second skin.

“Go back and get changed Ro, I’m going to take you for coffee.” Remy waved his hand dismissively at the others. “Go home ladies, I’ll give him back to you tomorrow.”

“It’s a weeknight, that’s breaking our silent agreement.” Thomas crossed his arms for a moment before shrugging. “Sounds fine with me.”

Instinctively, Roman turned his head to look at Patton. “Can I go?”

“Have fun kiddo! I’ll make sure everyone gets home safely!” Patton gave him a massive thumbs up before herding the others in one direction while Remy dragged Roman backstage so he could get changed.

Once Roman was ready, they walked out of the auditorium, Roman hastily wiping his face with makeup remover as Remy guided him while he was temporarily blinded.

“I’m so proud of you Princey. How long have you been prepping for this girl? Like two months?”

“Two and a half, if you count the audition.”

“See, even I don’t have that dedication.”

Roman looked puzzled and he punched Remy lightly in the arm before he zipped up his bomber jacket and laced his hand through Remy’s. “We’ve been dating since the beginning of August and it’s barely November. That’s four months.”

Remy tilted his head to the left and looked down at Roman. “It’s probably time we broke up.”

“What?”

“I’m kidding. You’re the only thing I’m dedicated to Roman Prince.” Remy stopped midstep, “Except my college loans.”

“Ha!” Roman pulled on Remy’s hand gently as they continued walking, making their way to the small coffee shop that had a sign that proudly proclaimed that they ran 24/7.

“My treat.”

“Remy, you shouldn’t.”

“I have two punch cards that I’ve been waiting to use.” 

“ _You bastard._ ” Roman teased as he opened the door for Remy, letting them both into the small coffee shop. Ordering was easy, and after a small argument of whether Remy could use both punch cards at once, they had their drinks, Remy with an iced americano and Roman with one so complicated he couldn’t remember half the ingredients, but it tasted like caramel and so that’s what counted.

They sat at the outside tables and Roman had a brief flashback to when Remus had dumped his drink on him, but Remus wasn’t here and he was safe from flinging drinks.

Hopefully.

Remy took an annoyingly long slurp through his straw, snapping his sunglasses onto his face as Roman took a drink from his, shuddering a bit as the liquid warmed him on the inside.

“Have you heard from your twin lately?”

“Strangely, no. It’s worrying, oh no, I’m starting to sound like Logan.” Roman buried his face in his hands and Remy kindly put his hand across the table, an open invitation for when Roman was ready.

“I'm sure he’ll use his one time phone call eventually.” Remy joked darkly. When he noticed that Roman still wouldn’t look up, he changed the subject.

“Speaking of Logan, how’s he doing with the emo? Finally work up the courage to ask him out?”

“Ha, no, they went to a Halloween party together, but Virgil came back early and in a bad mood according to Patton and Janus told me that Logan came back around one am, also in a bad mood and they’re walking on eggshells around each other so I’m guessing no.”

“Pity. I was hoping they’d hook up.”

“Remy!” Roman scolded, as he choked on his drink, spewing latte across the table and himself. “You sound just as bad as Remus sometimes!”

“Oh he does? Brother, you must’ve lost your memory while you were hanging out with your boy toy.”

Roman’s head jerked around behind him to see Remus and Remy simply lifted his sunglasses.

“Well, this just took one hell of a spin. Hi babe, I assume that you’re Remus?” Remy raised his iced coffee at Remus, who snarled.

“You think that you’re cool?”

“Well I am cool.” 

“Remy, Remus, guys, can we please not do this today? Or tonight? I just had a performance and I’m running on an emotional high and I’d like it to be a good high.”

“Aw looks like Roman can’t handle the heat.”

“Remus, please.”

Remus snickered and wrapped his arms around Roman’s neck and chest, giving an awkward hug/constriction thing as Remy glared.

“Remus…” Roman gasped, feeling as if he was being choked as he pulled at the arms.

He was barely aware of Remy standing, and then the pressure was off his neck and Remy’s hand was on his shoulder, urging him to stand.

“Come on Ro, I don’t think he’ll let my punch affect him for long.”

Roman nodded, the panic still simmering under the surface as Remy dragged him up and away from a Remus who was clutching at his nose.

“This isn’t...over.” Remus managed to choke out, voice sounding wet from the blood dripping from his nose.

Remy pulled Roman so that they were practically hip to hip, mouth curling into an angry sneer. “To hell we’re not. Go fuck yourself Remus.”

And with that, he led them both away, leaving behind two coffees and a very angry twin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gosh, roman's gonna hate coffee by the end of this.  
> remus wasn't strangling roman, he was just holding him a bit rougher than you normally would wrap your arms around someone when you're standing and they're sitting and so roman was triggered by that and it gave him a mild panic attack because of it.  
> I'm going to just say right here that in the plot, there's three arcs- the analogical, the rosleep and the moceit. which gives us three antagonists, which are whatever's haunting Virgil, Remus and then Janus's disability and pride, mixed with Patton's occasional insecurity about being a good person.  
> so if it feels like the plots scattered, it's because I'm jumping from four different perspectives and three plot arcs instead of just one main one and subplots.
> 
> kudos? comments?


	17. Juggling lives (he's very good at it.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton deals with everyone taking midterm finals.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did i tell you that I hate writing in patton's pov? yes? ah, well I enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> hey, dad joke time! what do you call a smart and witty virgil mixed with a logan that hasn't gotten any sleep?
> 
> analogical!

Morality: Hey, are you back yet!?!

Deceit: no

Morality: Whhyyyyy do you have to wait so long to take a single test?!?!

Deceit: It’s an oral exam.

Deceit: I gotta pretend to be a psychologist and help them cope.

Morality: that sounds fun!

Deceit: It’s actually really stressful, most the kids in the waiting room won’t stop staring at my face or cane. How am I supposed to become a psychologist if i look like a freak?

Deceit: I hate how my thanksgiving grade is riding on this

Deceit: they just called my name gtg.

Morality: Good luck!<3 We’ll talk later abt the self deprecating;)

Gosh it felt like hours when Janus had these weird tests for his major. It was only two days until everyone got a week off for Thanksgiving, and nerves were running high. If it wasn’t Roman being gone for theater, it was Virgil having minor panic attacks for physics or Logan making coffee at three am so that he could pull all nighters for his stats class. Or how Thomas brought home a dead frog for biochem and it had smelled terrible until Patton had thrown it out.

Patton wasn’t feeling the stress as much as the others. Sure, his finals had been difficult, but compared to the others who still had three or four tests to take before they could go home for the break, two essays and a final hadn’t seemed that bad. Especially since his had already been over for a week and the others were just getting started.

So now he was on cooking duty, making sure that everyone was fed and alive over the course of the next two days. Patton stirred the pasta and looked behind him and Virgil came crashing down the stairs, textbook and laptop in hand.

“Hey Patton.”

“How’s it going kiddo?”

“I’ve mixed a redbull with a five hour energy and now I’m hearing color, but other than that, I’m fine.”

“That sounds horrible. Hey, dinner will be ready in ten minutes, do you want it now or later?”

“Now.” Virgil muttered as he sat down and Patton glanced back at his pasta, stirring the water to reduce the bubbling.

“Hey kiddo, it’s okay to take a step back occasionally.”

“NOOOOoooooo, not when I have one essay due tonight and I still need a person to review it.”

“I can, if you want, while you’re eating, so that way you can focus on your food and I can help out!” Patton grabbed the pasta of the stovetop as he poured the water into a strainer before tossing the still warm pasta into a bowl with the homemade tomato sauce he’d spent an hour on.

He quickly spooned some onto a plate and added some salad before bringing the meal to the table and sliding it in front of Virgil. “Get started eating and I’ll be back once I get Thomas, Logan and Roman their food.”

“Thanks.”

Patton smiled and prepared three more plates, wandering upstairs to the others rooms. 

Thomas’s was first, and he gratefully accepted the food, before returning to his studies, tuning Patton out.

Roman’s was next, and the amount of cursing that came from his mouth surprised Patton as he opened the door, seeing him at a smoking sewing machine.

“What’s wrong?”

“Busted the motor and I need to finish this skirt for my costuming class.” Roman tugged uselessly at the bundle of navy fabric. “I was going to have Remy wear it because most of the girls in the class said no.”

“Well, I’m sure I can fix this real fast!” Patton set the plate a safe distance from the skirt and sewing machine as he knelt next to Roman.

When the roommates ad had first been put up, it had asked for two of the tenants to share a room and after mild debate, Patton and Roman had agreed to share, sparing the others from acknowledging their differences. Somehow though, when Patton had arrived that Monday morning, he had found that there were enough rooms for everyone to have their own.

He opened the sewing machine up and pulled some knotted thread from the gearing, before carefully adding some oil and shutting it again.

“There you go kiddo!”

“Thanks dad.” Roman reached for his meal and pushed away from the project to keep it safe as Patton made his way to Logan’s room.

The door was shut and when he knocked a quiet ‘come in’ prompted him to enter the room. Logan was at his small desk, a spread of notecards and textbooks opened across the desk and bed, all color coded and matching the schedule on the wall. Other than that, the person at the desk did not look like Logan. He was wearing an oversized hoodie and he had on a pair of glasses that were differently shaped from his normal pair that matched Patton’s. 

“Everything good?”

“I lost my glasses and stole Virgil’s sweatshirt, don’t tell him. And my new glasses will show up tomorrow, don’t worry.”

“Okay… any unresolved stuff you want to talk about?”

“No. You can put the plate in the fridge, I’ll get it later. Thank you Patton.” Logan put on a pair of purple headphones that Patton recognized as Virgil’s --how was Logan successfully stealing all of Virgil’s stuff?-- and turned on classical music as Patton left him.

Virgil had barely eaten anything when he came back down, and Patton sat next to him, pulling the laptop so that it was in between them. 

“What’s the essay on?”

“Newton’s law and modern day application with space travel.”

“Sounds fun!”

“If three all nighters can be considered fun. Or juggling chainsaws.” Virgil said as he ate some more of the food while Patton spent the time editing the grammatical mistakes that he found and left comments on the side of the document, most of them praising the essay and topic.

“Here you go, and I’ll take care of your plate!” Patton took Virgil’s now empty plate to the sink and carefully washed it off before putting it in the dishwasher.

“Patton? Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure thing kiddo.”

“How on earth are you and Janus a couple? You’re like polar opposites.” Virgil was looking up at him from the table and Patton held back a dreamy sigh before shaking himself back to reality.

“He’s really nice and I like talking to him. And he isn’t what he seems like. Sure, he  _ does _ lie about his bad days and I have to help him through the worst of the physical therapy, but it’s worth it. Everytime he walks in a room, I feel like I’m about to explode with happiness and that’s the feeling that makes every bad moment worth it.”

“Ah.” Virgil went back to his essay and Patton popped a mug full of water into the microwave and started it.

“Why the deep questions about love?”

The microwave beeped and he pulled the mug out, adding sugar and a tea sachet as he walked to sit back down next to the purple haired student.

“I don’t know.”

“Did my answer help?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Anything to help my dark strange son.” Patton took a sip of his tea and the sound of the door unlocking caused him and Virgil to look over.

“Is that Janus?”

“He said that he’d text me.” Patton set his drink down and turned in his chair, watching as the handle turned and the door opened slowly.

“Ummm, I was told that this was the house to deliver to and that I should just use the key under the mat to let myself in.” The delivery person held out a pizza box and Patton cast a look at Virgil.

“I don’t think any of us ordered anything.”

“It was prepaid.” the delivery person fumbled for the receipt, “by a Remus Prince. In special messages it says: ‘sorry about last week, winky face.’”

Virgil and Patton exchanged glances again and Virgil shook his head.

“What type of pizza is it?”

“Pineapple.”

“Throw it in the trash on your way out. Sorry that you had to come here.” 

The delivery person held out the box and then sighed. “Can I keep it? I hate pizza, but I’m sure that someone could use it.”

Patton took another drink of his tea and shrugged. “I’m sure that you could find good use of it.”

“Thanks.” They walked out as Janus walked in, looking back confusedly at the delivery person.

“What was that about?”

Patton sighed and looked down. “Long story.”

“Cool.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> give me kudos you coward, you've read this far.
> 
> comment? it takes less than a minute to keysmash.


	18. Promise me no promises. (just be careful)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton is among the last to leave.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy fake thanksgiving!

Janus tapped his cane against his knee as Patton folded the last of the blankets and stood.

“I’m noticing something weird.” Patton said abruptly. Janus nodded absentmindedly. “Hmmm?”

“You know how when we all first moved in, it was like looking in a mirror except for a few small things like how Logan and I have glasses and Virgil dyed his hair?”

“Yes.”

“We’re changing.”

Janus tilted his head to the side, confused. “Changing how?”

“Virgil and I used to be able to look eye to eye and now he’s a whole _two inches_ taller. Roman’s hair is turning a more auburn color and your eyes are now different colors, and your cheekbones are shifting.”

“What’s your point?” Janus leaned forward on his cane and gave Patton a wicked grin. “Aren’t you heading home for thanksgiving in like two hours? Why bring this up now?”

“I think that our genetics are shifting because of our proximity to each other, like the universe doesn’t like how we cheated it.”

Janus sighed and shook his head. “Patton, focus on thanksgiving. I want to spend the last two hours with you, not with a theory crazy boyfriend. And since Logan left yesterday and Roman isn’t leaving until tomorrow, I want to have something good to think about while I’m stuck in the condo with Virgil for all of next week.”

“Wait, you aren’t going home?” Patton dropped the blankets he was carrying and hugged Janus tightly. “If you’d told me I would have asked my Mom and Dad to get you an airline ticket too.”

Janus ruffled Patton’s hair and leaned his head against his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I couldn’t leave Virgil alone. It’s the least that I could do for our roommate. And I’m too burned out from the finals to travel.”

Patton sighed and Janus pulled away from him, tapping a finger against his nose. “It’ll be okay, after all I will see you in a week, and we still have some time before you do go, so we can go take a walk in the Florida rain, get a coffee…” Janus trailed off and looked up at the ceiling. “Or we could cuddle on the couch until it’s time for you to go.”

Patton grinned widely at this and grabbed Janus’s wrist, pulling him towards the couch. “I like that plan.”

“Good, because it was the only one that I was planning on doing.”

They collapsed on the couch in a tangle of limbs and Janus tossed his cane to the side before wrapping both arms around Patton, pulling him closer to his chest. Patton tucked his head into the crook of Janus’s neck, humming contentedly as they stayed that way, simply enjoying the warmth and comfort that proximity provided.

“Janus?”

“Hmmm?”

“Do you love me?” Patton whispered.

“Do I have burns along my whole body and a terrible limp?” Janus responded.

“ _Deceit._ ” Patton poked him in the ribs, which drew out a laugh.

“Okay, maybe I love you.”

“Hmmmmmm, I wanna hear you say it before I go on my vacation to Maine.”

“Pity, you’re not getting it from me, unless I’m drunk or you kiss it out of me.” Janus brushed his nose against Patton’s and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before drawing back.

“Does that count?”

“I kissed you dummy, not the other way around.” Janus wrinkled his nose and gasped in surprise when Patton’s head bobbed forward and kissed him.

“Now?”

“I love you.” Janus relented, and Patton giggled, eyes flashing with mischief as he kissed Janus again. “Say it again.”

“I love you.” Janus whispered this one close to Patton’s ear, breath tickling his neck, and bringing out another giggle as they snuggled closer together on the couch.

“I’m going to miss you.”

“It’s only a week Patton cake.”

“That’s a new nickname.”

“I think that it’s high time for newness.” 

“Promise me that you’ll do all your physical therapy exercises, even the really hard ones?”

“Promise.”

“Promise me that you’ll eat all the cookies in the pantry so that I can make more when I get back.”

“I can’t promise you that one, but I’ll try.”

“Okay. One last promise?”

“Of course, fire away.”

“You’ll come home for Christmas break.” 

“We’ll see.” Janus teased. Patton shook his head and poked Janus’s face. “Promise.”

“Okay, okay, I promise. As long as we find somewhere for Virgil to go too, he doesn’t deserve to be alone.”

“I wouldn’t leave one of my kiddos alone for the holidays! Of course I’m going to find something for him, even if it means dragging him to Maine myself.”

Patton’s phone started beeping and they both sat up, scrambling for the phone.

“I have to go.”

“I’m taking you to the airport and I want you to text me the moment you arrive.” Janus reached for his cane and stood, helping Patton up. He grabbed the small duffle bag by the door and swung it over his shoulder, opening the door to where an Uber was waiting to take Patton to the airport.

And then he’d be alone.

Ish.

If Virgil would come out of his room for anything besides food and to use the shared bathroom.

Patton gave Janus one last hug, before slipping the bag into the car and getting in himself.

“I’ll miss you.”

“I know, but have fun Patton.”

The car door swung shut and drove off, Janus waving until the car turned out of the residential area and he was alone in the driveway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave me comments pls  
> kudos? you've read this far. thank you.


	19. Texting over the holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> texting over the break.  
> chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Logan texting names: Logan, Left Brain, LoLo  
> Roman texting names: Princey, They_see_me_Roman, ROman, RoRo  
> Virgil texting names: wet blanket, Chemically Imbalanced Romance, Emo Nightmare  
> Patton texting names: DAD<3, Morality  
> Remy texting names: That_one_slut  
> Remus texting names: Garbage fire  
> Janus texting names: Janus, Deceit

_ 6:13 p.m. EST Monday _

wet blanket: how’s everyone’s vacation

DAD<3: Just landed in Maine!

wet blanket: gosh i can’t wait for logan to leave

Logan: Ouch.

wet blanket: hmmm

Princey: It’s weird out here in france. I’m still trying to get over the jet lag though. I wish that mom and dad just let us have thanksgiving in NYC like they said.

Logan: Was it because of Remus?

Princey: yeah, they know that if I can barely afford a flight ticket that Remus definitely can’t.

wet blanket: remy’s already been over twice

wet blanket: he’s getting on my nerves

Princey: Just tell him I’m out.

wet blanket: do you wanna know just how many times i’ve already done that

Princey: twice?

wet blanket: dont you dare be cheeky with me.

DAD<3: Guys, it’s like really late where you are, you should go to sleep. 

Princey: Gn!

wet blanket: he meant here in florida 

Princey: I still have jet lag you emo nightmare.

〜

_ 8:30 p.m. EST Monday _

Left Brain: It’s my last night before I leave, are you staying in here tonight?

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: mmkay im coming

Left Brain: Can I take one of your sweatshirts to Oregon?

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: only if i get to keep your blanket in my room and can call you if i need you

Left Brain: Fair enough.

〜

_ 9:00 a.m. EST Tuesday _

Garbage fire: ROman, you didn’t tellme that mom took u toparis

ROman: no, of course not.

Garbage fire: I’ll hit you with my car when you get back.

ROman: Since when did you have a car?!?

Garbage fire: since I stole one.

ROman: I’m calling the police the second my flight lands back in Orlando.

Garbage fire: whatever. Enjoy your vacation.

〜

_ 9:32 a.m. EST Tuesday _

Princey: Remy, can you do something for me?

That_one_slut: Course darling

Princey: Keep an eye on Virgil and Janus

That_one_slut: sure, whatever you need

Princey: tysm

〜

_ 4:51 p.m. EST Tuesday _

Thomas: Guys, I have bad news.

DAD<3: Aw, what’s up kiddo?

wet blanket: everything okay?

Logan: We’re listening.

Thomas: I won’t be coming back after the break.

Janus: why?

Thomas: My parents can’t afford out of state anymore and I was barely floating before I moved in, so I’m going to community college.

Thomas: at least the credits transfer.

Logan: Do you need us to ship your personal belongings back to you?

Thomas: Nah, I’ve known it for a long time now.

Thomas: I’ve already moved out.

DAD<3: I’ll miss you! :(

Janus: Aw, I lost my twin.

wet blanket: keep in contact with us

wet blanket: we’ll tell roman what happened

Logan: I will miss you as well.

Thomas: Thanks guys. I wish that I could’ve stayed longer.

_ Thomas has left the chat. _

〜

_ 11:06 p.m. EST Tuesday _

Morality: I missssssssss you!

Deceit: I miss you too.

Morality: How’s the condo? Still standing I hope!!

Deceit: Virgil and I aren’t that destructive

Deceit: yet

Morality: !!

〜

_ 1:17 a.m. EST Wednesday _

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: Logan?

Left Brain: Is everything okay? You capitalized  _ and _ used punctuation.

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: bad dreams again

Left Brain: Call or text?

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: im too anxious to call

Left Brain: The usual dreams or the PTSD variety?

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: both

Left Brain: I’m sorry.

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: i know that they can’t get me anymore but im still worried when i walk outside like they somehow found me 

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: gosh im so paranoid

Left Brain: It’s going to be okay

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: sure as hell doesnt feel like it

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: shit

Left Brain: What’s up?

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: apparently i screamed in my nightmare and it woke janus up

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: hes knocking on my door

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: he wants to talk

Left Brain: Janus has PTSD too, and he’s majoring in psychology, he’ll be okay to talk to.

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: okay

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: ttyl

Left Brain: :)

〜

_ 7:59 a.m. EST Wednesday _

Janus: Thanks for letting me know that he wasn’t doing well.

Logan: What’d he do?

Janus: Talked it out with me on the couch downstairs, he fell asleep so I put your blanket on him and went back to bed.

Logan: Don’t tell anyone that we’re dating.

Janus: I respect yours and V’s privacy and I know how to keep a secret.

Logan: I can’t thank you enough.

Janus: It’s all chill Lo, you just enjoy your thanksgiving, we’ll be alive when you get back

Logan: gtg as you heathens say.

Janus: k bye

〜

_ 8:48 a.m. EST Thursday _

Princey: HAPPy ThanKSgiving

wet blanket: thats today

wet blanket: lmao whats there to be grateful for

DAD<3: Miss all my kiddos so much, happy thanksgiving

Logan: Happy thanksgiving from Portland, Oregon.

Janus: Happy Thanksgiving, I think I’ll just watch a bunch of Marvel movies.

wet blanket: princey your brother egged out condo last night

wet blanket: hes in the county jail rn

Princey: crappy thanksgiving for him

Princey: No wonder he hasn’t answered any of my texts recently.

DAD<3: Aw, do you need me to venmo you bail money?

Janus: V and I agreed to leave him there so he doesn’t terrorize anyone.

wet blanket: yep

Logan: I honestly don’t blame you.

Logan: Anyone heard from Thomas recently?

DAD<3: He changed his number.

Princey: :(

Janus: rip

Janus: I’m heading out to clean the eggs off with V, so we’ll chat later.

〜

_ 3:01 p.m. EST Thursday _

Emo Nightmare: wtf roman 

Emo Nightmare: why does remy keep coming by

They_see_me_Roman: I told him to keep tabs on you.

Emo Nightmare: at least he brought pie this time

They_see_me_Roman: wonderful! Happy thanksgiving Virgil

Emo Nightmare: i hope your enjoying france

They_see_me_Roman: It’s a beautiful country.

They_see_me_Roman: I fly back Saturday.

Emo Nightmare: nifty

Emo Nightmare: gtg

〜 

_ 4:15 a.m. EST Friday _

Morality: My flight just landed.

Morality: See you in an hour.

Deceit: I’m gonna be asleep. Sorry I wasn’t able to pick you up.

Morality: It’s okay sweetie, you’re doing great.

Deceit: See you at the crack of dawn.

Morality: XD

〜

_ 4:17 a.m. EST Saturday _

RoRo: Do you miss the gang?

LoLo: Yeah.

RoRo: Gosh, I can’t wait to see Remy.

LoLo: I wouldn’t expect anything less.

RoRo: R u excited to see Sam?

LoLo: Sure, she’s a great friend.

RoRo: wait, you’re not dating?

LoLo: NO! I’m _gay_ Roman.

RoRo: Right, I knew that.

RoRo: I thought Sam was a dude.

LoLo: Nah, she’s a girl.

RoRo: Man, I’m sorry.

LoLo: It’s okay. Honest mistake.

RoRo: Patton got back.

RoRo: He just texted Janus and then Janus texted me.

LoLo: cool

LoLo: See you Sunday.

〜

_ 11:26 a.m. EST Sunday _

Left Brain: My flight just landed, see you soon.

Chemically Imbalanced Romance: ill let everyone know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos? comments?  
> thanks to my discord for helping me come up with all the texting names;)


	20. It goes to your head sometimes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil and Logan fluff.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: excoriation 
> 
> guess who's excoriation also flared up at the time when I was writing this chapter? YAy for my personal anxiety and my ptsd weeks!  
> sigh.  
> fourth of july is one of my bad weeks and I'm trying to get most of this story done before then so that when I do inevitably tank for my yearly trigger weekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Virgil was glad that Logan was back. Currently, his head was in Logan’s lap, while the latter was running one hand through Virgil’s dyed hair and the other hand was holding a Kindle while he read some mystery by Agatha Christie.

“Logan?”

“Hmmm?” Logan didn’t look down, but his eyes shifted away from the Kindle. “What’s up?”

“Do you know what excoriation is?” 

“Of course I do.”

“Mine resurfaced while you were gone, I’m sorry.” Virgil muttered as Logan’s fingers hit a scab that was hidden by his hair. The contact to the sore sent a jolt of pain through his head and he winced a bit as Logan put his Kindle down and began to carefully comb his fingers through Virgil’s hair.

“Does that feel good?”

“Yeah.” 

“If you were a cat, you’d totally be purring.” Logan teased. “Your head has lots of nerve endings and sensory points and for some people, head rubs are a way to reduce tension. You’re just one of them, but heightened so you scratch and pick at it.” His voice had adopted a ‘teacher tone’ as Virgil liked to call it, and if they both had been sitting up, he was sure that Logan would have pulled out a Powerpoint. 

“So I’m normal?”

“None of us are normal Virge.” Logan mused as he put slight pressure on the center of Virgil’s forehead, smoothing the worry lines back into the hairline.

“Hmmm, rub my forehead again, that one felt good.” 

“You’re so lucky that no one’s home, you usually don’t get me for this long.”

Virgil grinned up at Logan and stuck his tongue out. “It’s not my fault that Patton wants to go Christmas shopping three weeks before Christmas. It’s barely December.”

“I’ve already gotten everyone’s presents.” Logan said absentmindedly. Virgil sat up and twisted so that he was able to actually look at the nerd.

“Black Friday?”

“Black Friday.” Logan pushed his glasses so that they were in place, nodding.

“Of course you did. That gives me horrible panic just  _ thinking _ about shopping with that many piranhas.” Virgil shuddered visibly and swung his legs off the bed so that he and Logan were sitting side by side. “That’s straight up heroic.”

“Hmmm.” Logan shook his head. “I can’t be straight up heroic if I’m gay.”

Virgil snickered at this and rested his head on Logan’s shoulder. “Nerd.”

“Panic! at the Everywhere.” Logan shot back.

“Ooh, that’s a good one, who made it up?”

“Sam.”

“Ah. Left Brain.” Virgil smiled cheekily.

“Right Brain.” 

“Cold rational icicle. Beat that.”

“Fickle Fulgurite.” Logan nodded proudly at his use of alliteration and Virgil growled before firing another insult.

“Squid.”

“Wildcat.”

“How am I a wildcat?” Virgil asked as he took his head off of Logan’s shoulder and almost toppled off the bed with how fast he was moving.

“Wildcats are cute. How am I a squid?”

“They use a lot of ink and you go through all your pens and mine.”

Logan’s mouth fell open and he gaped for a moment before closing it. “That’s surprisingly well thought out.”

“Told you.”

“I’d beat you in a rap battle.”

Virgil laughed and shook his head. “You destroyed Roman so badly that one time, I thought that he was going to have to be taken to the ER to treat those burns.”

“He underestimated me.”

“That he did, that he did.” Virgil felt Logan’s hand wrap around his as they sat in contented silence, listening to the December rain slap the windows on repeat.

“Virgil?” Logan asked after a moment, running his thumb over the top of Virgil’s hand.

“Yep?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Virgil turned to look at Logan and tilted his head as he thought about it. It was one of the things that he liked about the nerd, that he asked instead of took. Sure, they’d only kissed twice since November 1st, but each time had been completely consensual on both sides, so therefore the best, abiet the only kisses that he’d had.

“Sure.”

Logan cupped his free hand around Virgil’s jaw and brought him closer, giving him a quick kiss before pulling back.

“Again?” Virgil leaned forward a bit and Logan smirked before giving him another kiss. 

“Better?” Logan asked and Virgil nodded.

“Yeah. We should probably get downstairs before everyone gets back and wonders what we’re doing.”

“It’s too late for that.”

Virgil and Logan’s gazes snapped to the door, where Roman and Remy were looking in, Remy with a shit eating grin on his face and Roman with a look of shock.

“So how long has,” Roman waggled his fingers at the pair, “this been going on?”

“Ooh, I think at least two weeks Ro.” Remy cackled.

Virgil felt his neck heat up and he glanced at Logan, whose blush was just as deep, turning his face a splotchy red.

“A month.” Virgil mumbled.

“oOOOh! The plot thickens bitches!” Remy crowed and it took everything in Virgil’s power to not hide his face in his hands or throw anything at the sunglassed bartender.

“Remy, Roman?” Logan stared down the pair, his eyes flashing dangerously.

“Yes babe?”

“Get out of my room or I’ll throw my copy of  _ Statistics and Logarithms _ at you and it  _ will  _ hurt.” Logan’s voice had a hard edge to it and if Virgil wasn’t terrified at the moment, he would have told Logan that he sounded really hot.

Roman let out a squeak and disappeared from sight and Remy lowered his glasses and winked before hurriedly ducking away. Logan turned back to Virgil and sighed.

“That was not how I was planning on telling everyone.” Logan admitted sheepishly.

“After how you threatened Roman and Remy, I don’t think they’re spilling.”

“But Janus knows.” Virgil admitted.

“Since when?”

“When I had that nightmare and he heard, we talked about you and I admitted to him that we were in a sorta, maybe kinda relationship.”

“Well, Janus knows how to keep secrets and we scared Roman into silence--”

“ _ You _ scared Roman into silence.”

“Was I really that scary?”

“Yesss.” Virgil laughed and Logan broke into a smile as well. “Please don’t ever use your scary face on me.”

“No promises, especially if you keep sneaking the full coffee pot to your room.” 

_ “Oh no.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment you coward, I did not write a 20k+ word fic for it to not be noticeddddd.  
> kudos?  
> 


	21. Nightmare before Christmas. (two weeks before christmas to be exact)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan doesn't sleep well. (mood)  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyy hey hey!  
> um, I should probably put down everyone's majors before chaos hits.  
> Janus- Psychology, specifically children with trauma and ptsd. he wants to be a therapist, but he's worried that people won't want to talk to him with the facial scarring.  
> Roman- General Fine Arts, but he's minoring in Playwriting. despite people telling him that he's not gonna get a job that way, his singing voice is going to carry him to the top.  
> Patton- Humanities, minoring in Education.  
> Logan- Statistics, with a minor in physics because he's *extra*  
> Virgil- hasn't decided, but he's leaning towards physics. Or he probably could just keep uploading to YouTube and he'd be able to float pretty well with his talent. But he hates publicity, so that's probably not going to happen.

_ Logan was kneeling in blood and slush, crying. Everything went wrong, it wasn’t supposed to be like this, it wasn’t even supposed to snow in Florida and yet, here he was. _

_ Why was he so cold? _

_ There was a hand at his shoulder, a gloved hand, someone pulling him away as the tears streaked down his face, hot against cool skin. _

_ They urged him away and he followed, until the lights dimmed and someone was holding him to dull the world. _

Logan jolted bolt upright in his bed, panting as he fumbled for his glasses. From next to him, Virgil grunted something unintelligible, before sitting up as well.

“Ah crap, we fell asleep while studying again didn’t we?”

“Affirmative. I apologize for waking you.”

“Are you okay Lo?” Virgil’s voice was soft and he looked at Logan with concern in his eyes as he reached for Logan’s hand. Logan pulled away and turned his pillow over, sending one of their notebooks to the floor.

“Nightmare, it was nothing, I can’t remember anything about it.” and it was true, the memory of the dream was already fading and his hands didn’t feel cold as he finally located his glasses among the blankets and put them on, blinking as he loosened his tie.

“Do you know what confuses me?” Virgil blurted out suddenly, shocking Logan as he swung his legs off the bed and stood.

“What?”

“How the hell Janus and Patton share a twin sized four out of seven nights of the week. I mean, Roman said that Remy has a massive bed, but only on weekends, and it’s not like you and I are sharing a bed--”

“Right, it is confusing.”

“I mean they’re both like what, 5’10”? Yeah, how does that fly?”

“Janus is 5’8”.” Logan corrected, “It’s because of when he got hit by the car, it broke his leg and stunted his growth.”

Virgil pursed his lips and nodded appreciatively. “Impressive.”

“I do my research.”

“Course you do. I’ll see you in the morning?”

“See you in the morning.” Logan watched Virgil head out, before he tossed a notebook at the light to turn it off.

_ A car, someone laying on the horn as the lights beamed down and he stood frozen, waiting, waiting for the impact. _

_ Hands from behind, he knew these hands as they pushed, someone else’s feet stumbling forward. _

_ He looked back as it hit, the panicked look across the person’s face. _

_ And the sound of tires screeching, metal folding, bone crunching. _

_ Blood _

_ Screams. _

_ A body thrashing in the cold, from the pain, vermillion spreading onto the snow, melting it. _

_ Someone was laughing, like they couldn’t believe their horrible luck, like the universe was spitting at them for cheating in some game that had no rules except one. _

_ Survive. _

It’d be a lie to say that the only reason Logan woke up from this nightmare was when his head hit the carpeted floor with a very satisfying thud noise. 

He sat up and rubbed the sore spot on the top of his head before squinting at the window.

Grey light was filtering through the curtains, a surefire way to tell that it was going to be one of those cold rainy days that warranted an umbrella or a very warm coat.

Like almost every morning, the singing from downstairs was enough to prompt Logan to throw on the hoodie that he stole from Virgil before working his way downstairs to sit at the table and rest his head on it.

“Hey Lo! What do you want in your omelet? Janus is doing an open kitchen.” Patton tossed a paper cup at him and grinned. “Just put what you want in there and Janus will make it for you!”

“Thanks Patton.”

Roman sat down next to him, his omelet more toppings than egg, and he attacked it viciously with a plastic fork. Logan raised an eyebrow when Roman finally looked over.

“What?”

“That looks like a horrible mess.”

“Maybe because I had Janus add vodka.”

From the kitchen, Janus stuck his head out indignantly. “I did not Roman Prince!”

“Rightttttt.” Roman took another bite and grimaced. “It literally tastes briney.”

“That’s because there’s sardines in yours! You told me to put everything in it! Do not make me throw this at you.” Janus waved his spatula at Roman and Logan shook his head as he stood and made his way to the kitchen to pick out his omelet fillings. He put cheese and bell peppers in the paper cup before handing it to Janus.

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you Logan. I didn’t want to make a nightmare omelet again.” Janus unceremoniously dumped the fillings into the egg mixture and began to mix the omelet.

“Hey, anyone seen Virgil?” Roman shouted from the table. Patton’s face lit up and he nodded.

“He had an 8:30 class. Intro to US history I think? Anyway, he left around 8:00.”

“Virgil doesn’t have a history class.”

Janus slid the omelet onto a plate and passed it to Logan silently. Logan took the plate to the table and sat down, eating while the others bickered the finer points of each others’ schedules.

The conclusion came out to be that currently, only Patton was taking a history class and it was slightly because he hadn’t passed the AP test, and Roman was planning on taking it next semester so he said that he couldn’t count this round.

“He did tell me that he went to the wrong class on Halloween and made a friend there, so maybe that’s why?” Patton mused, tapping his finger to his chin.

“That doesn’t explain why he’d go back.”

“Probably because he doesn’t have any other way to contact them.” Roman waved his fork as he spoke, almost as if he was conducting a choir.

“I’m going to go out and find him.” Logan stood and took his plate to the sink, washing and drying it quickly.

“Why?”

“Our physics classes have a combined lecture today.” Logan slipped on his jacket and put on a scarf, before grabbing an umbrella just in case the rain came back.

“Cool, have fun. Be back for dinner.” Patton handed him a paper sack -- seriously, if this kid didn’t go into social work, Logan was going to beat him into it-- and then he was off into the cold morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos?  
> comments?  
> I'm slowly spiraling to the climax, so hang on for a few more chapters!


	22. Callback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman goes to practice.  
> Remus exists.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter cause I'm lazy.  
> warnings- death threats.

Roman dumped the shampoo into his hand and started to lather it in, loudly singing as he showered.

“Man, I love being single, I have no regrets in my life, I don’t need no man to take my--”

“Roman! Other people need to use the bathroom!” The door rattled with how loudly the person on the other side was knocking and with immense reluctance, Roman shut off the shower and got out, drying off quickly and wrapping himself in a robe.

When he opened the door, he was greeted by three people instead of just one like he was expecting.

Virgil, Logan, and Logan’s friend with the pink hair were there, all impatiently waiting for him to leave.

“What are you guys planning?”

“We’re touching up Virgil’s bangs and giving Logan a few navy streaks.” The girl held up a plastic bag with the Hot Topic logo on the side before ushering Roman out of the way.

“That’s tight. Could you do red streaks?”

“Yeah, but it’ll fade to pink and Logan told me that you’re currently in some show and that you can’t change your hair.”

Roman nodded and let them into the bathroom. “You guys have fun. I have practice and then work, so I’ll be back late.”

“Cool, have fun.” Logan and Virgil shut the door in Roman’s face, a very clear sign that they wanted him to go.

It was a dress rehearsal, with only three days until the show would open and everyone would get to feel the christmas spirit. 

Roman loved Christmas. The lights, the smells, when snow fell in New York City, going to hot chocolate stands or the simplicity of staying inside and cuddling with a blanket and a good movie, he didn’t care.

This year was going to be a bit different, with the show and then the fact that he was going to have to carpool up to New York with his brother and then turn around and come straight back for the start of the Spring Semester literal days after the holiday.

“Roman! Focus! You’re supposed to be a poor Bob Crachet, not a forgetful ghost!” the director, Tobey snapped his fingers at Roman, who looked up and slapped a frown on his face.

“Sorry.”

Tobey ignored his apology, but instead stood to address the cast and crew. “Hey guys, I know that Christmas is coming up, duh, and I know that a lot of people are stressed from finals and all that crap and so if we can get through this damn show  _ one time _ without any major screw ups, I won’t keep you all in here until nine pm. Capiche?”

“Capash.” The response echoed across the auditorium and then they got back to work.

Roman was lucky. There was only one costume mishap and the techie that was in charge of being the emergency weights was able to fix it before Tobey noticed.

“Alright, get some sleep guys and we’ll see you tomorrow for our last dry run through! Miranda, Craig, I want you two out of the booth, we have some last minute notes to go over.” Tobey dismissed everyone with a wave of his hand and Roman walked through the backstage to get his phone and bag.

Garbage Fire: ROman

ROman: wat

Garbage Fire: Ill hityoou with mycar

ROman: You literally haven’t followed through.

Garbage Fire: Im justwa iting for a good moment

ROman: You’re lucky that I haven’t blocked your number yet.

Garbage Fire: hmmmm, ill strike whenu least expect it.

ROman: Whatever remus.

Roman sighed and slipped his phone away before shouldering his bag and leaving the building, careful to look behind him as he crossed the streets.

Just because Remus was a lying wild card didn’t mean that he wouldn’t follow through.

And that scared Roman more than anything that he’d ever seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *leans close to you suggestively* comments?
> 
> kudos?
> 
> Also, Virgil bribed Sam to completely dye Logan's hair blue and he straight up Panicked when the cap came off and so they spent three additional hours dyeing the majority of it back to brown.  
> I almost wrote it in, but it doesn't fit with Roman's story, so here's some scrapped dialogue. 
> 
> "My, my, MY HAIR! WHY IS IT BLUE?" Logan screeched and for a moment the bathroom was silent. And then, Virgil broke out in laughter, raising one hand for Sam to high five.  
> "That was worth the forty dollars!" The emo wheezed as Logan fingered the blue hair, mortification crossing his features as Sam doubled over in laughter.  
> "I for one, think that it looks hot." Virgil teased.  
> "IT DOES NOT LOOK HOT, I WANT MY HAIR BACK."  
> "It'll take another two hours at least to get it back, are you sure?" Sam asked as she pulled out another box, obviously prepared to fix her prank.  
> "I DON'T CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES."  
> "Okay, calm down, you're starting to sound like me."


	23. Text the halls with boughs of holly. (fa la la la la, here comes angst--in two chapters)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton plans a surprise for Virgil with Janus.  
> for once, chaos does not ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Patton's family is loaded.   
> Roman's family would have been a lot more well off if they constantly weren't paying for Remus's property damages, so roman's paying in full for his college while his parents pay for housing.  
> Logan's family is above average and he got a bunch of scholarships for random stuff.  
> Virgil doesn't have any family and he's in college on scholarship for kids getting out of abusive situations and works three jobs doing online reviews so he can pay rent.  
> Janus is also on partial scholarship for the disabled and a trust fund from his grandparents, who made a bet that he wouldn't go to college so now he's getting a doctorate to spite them. (and to take advantage of that trust fund)

Pattoncake: Hey, what friend are you bringing to _ A Christmas Carol _ ?

Deceit: None. I don’t care if roman got enough free tickets, i’m not bringing a friend.

Pattoncake: Yeah me neither!

Pattoncake: Logan’s bringing Sam and apparently Virgil’s friends with her younger sis! I get more kiddos!

Deceit: How come you aren’t bringing a friend?

Pattoncake: You are my best friend and my boyfriend, I have everyone that I’m bringing!

Deceit: Liar.

Pattoncake: okay, you're right, I have a list of forty that I’m narrowing down.

Deceit: that sounds more like you.

Pattoncake: You can use one of the people on my list.

Deceit: Thanks

Pattoncake: of course!

Pattoncake: don’t tell roman, but I’m glad that we’re all going to the first showing, because my mom and dad are flying us out first thing tuesday!

Deceit: Are you going to give Virgil his present tomorrow? 

Pattoncake: I cleared it with Lolo about an hour ago!

Deceit: he’s gonna be so excited.

Pattoncake: Virgil deserves this.

Pattoncake: See you in the morning!

Deceit: Good night love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're ramping up for a big boy chapter here soonnnnnn
> 
> kudos?   
> comments?


	24. Frozen Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus.  
> before chaos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya'll gonna hate me tomorrow night .

Janus watched the stage, lights dancing in his eyes as the actors danced across the stage in glorious choreography.

Patton reached and squeezed his hand and Janus closed his eyes, savoring the peace.

For one glorious moment-- _everything was perfect._

And  _ that’s _ when the world shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you'll see


	25. Point of impact.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To mushroom wings, who figured it out after I foreshadowed everything in the notes and work itself, slowing building these three plots until they wove into one.  
> this one's for you sherlock  
> and to hammyboi from the comments, who read all this in one night I'm guessing(?)

_Roman & Remy 10:30 p.m. EST December 20th. _

Roman was walking outside with Remy, their hands interlaced as they waited for the others to come out to join them.

“You played an _amazing_ poor straight man.” Remy squeezed his hand and Roman laughed, throwing his head back as Remy leaned into him.

“Ro, it’s snowing.” Remy whispered and Roman blinked snowflakes out of his eyelashes as his boyfriend leaned in to keep warm.

“So, take everyone to the closed bar for an open bar?” Remy turned Roman’s face towards his and ran his fingers across Roman’s lips, teasing him before drawing him into a painfully slow kiss.

“It’s five days till Christmas and everyone flies out tomorrow. I don’t see why we shouldn’t celebrate. But there’s gonna be a lot of us.”

“What, you, your crazy roommates, an asexual who told me that she doesn’t drink and her stiff as nails sister who drinks twice as much? I’ve paid for bar mitzvahs that had more people.” Remy slapped Roman on the shoulder, and held back a laugh as the group came up to them.

Logan held out a single poinsettia, and then Virgil held out one, until everyone in the group was holding out one of the Christmas flowers. Roman laughed and took them all, bowing in a grand gesture of thanks before throwing his hands up into the snowing sky.

“Drinks on Remy!”

“Holy shit, it is a Christmas miracle.” Virgil whispered.

“And a Capri Sun for the non drinkers!” Remy looked pointedly at Sam, who scoffed.

“I can order my own damn Capri Sun.” Sam argued as she slipped her arm through her sister’s.

Remy snorted and pulled gently on Roman’s hand. “It’s a short walk, but I can assure you that it’ll be fast.”

...

_Remus 10:45 p.m. EST December 20th._

He turned the key in the ignition. 

He was lucky that no one was out for the night, that in just a few short minutes, his iditoic brother would be crossing the street and he could finally end it all.

“I told you that I was coming Roman.” 

...

_Virgil 10:46 p.m. EST December 20th._

Virgil let go of Logan’s hand gently and slowed his walking pace. “I’m going to talk to Jess, for a bit, are you good walking alone?”

Logan nodded. “You know that I’m always good with what you choose to do, I can walk by myself for five minutes.”

Virgil slowed down some more, until he was walking next to Jess. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself. I’m gonna miss you after Christmas.”

“Why?”

Jess sighed and rolled her eyes. “End of the semester dummy. I won’t have Intro to US History anymore.”

“Pity, those long lectures were wonderful naps.” Virgil held out his elbow for Jess to grab and she did, smiling softly.

“I’m gonna miss having a person to practice flirting on.”

Virgil blushed and ducked his head, before scratching the back of his neck. “You’ll find your man Jess.”

“Actually, I think I’m okay with not having someone right now. My sister taught me something, huh.” Jess laughed as the group came to stop at a crosswalk.

“Hey, we should run across- it’s not like anyone is coming, it’s almost eleven!” Virgil yelled, surprised with how confident his voice sounded.

Three months ago, he would have been scared out of his mind to speak loudly, but now he had Logan, he had his roommates and for the first time in his life, he felt like the universe wasn’t out to get him, like he’d finally won in the impossible game.

The pedestrian light turned green and the group started moving across en mass, Sam in the front, walking backwards, followed by a bickering Roman and Remy, then Logan, wandering alone while he waited for Virgil to be done, then of course, Virgil and Jess and then in the very back, Janus and Patton held up the tail, keeping everyone safe as Patton loved to put it.

They were about halfway across when the lights beamed upon them.

It was coming for Logan, Virgil could just _feel_ that he had literally only a moment to act.

So he made the split second choice.

Virgil pushed Jess back and stumbled forward, hands landing squarely on the center of Logan’s back, pushing him forward into Remy and Roman.

Everyone was safe.

Except him.

The last thing Virgil saw before the lights blinded him was Sam’s panicked face, her mouth forming into a scream.

Then the car hit and everything flashed a blinding, broken white before going dark.

...

_Sam 10:50 p.m. EST December 20th._

“Virgil! Oh _hell_ no!” She saw it happen, and as the adrenaline kicked in, her phone was out and she was dialing the number she had wished that she never had wanted to call.

…

_Logan 10:49 p.m. EST December 20th._

Hands.

Wait.

He knew these hands.

These hands held his gently when he kissed him, these hands were gentle, these hands had been like this, in the center of his back only one time before.

Nightmare.

Virgil had pushed him.

The sound of a body getting hit at twenty over the speed limit was no pretty sound. Logan fell forward into the snow, scraping his palms on the ice.

“What the fuck is happening?” Logan turned around, trying to locate the voice when he saw it.

Blood.

Steaming as it hit the snow, melting it.

Logan crawled forward, crying, trying to get to Virgil, who was somehow still conscious.

And he was laughing, Virgil was laughing hysterically as the pain kicked in. It was too much like his dream, Logan could feel his throat close as he tried to get to his love, his wild cat, the right brain to his left.

The anxiety to his cool and unforgiving logic.

A gloved hand at his shoulder. Janus, he could see the cane in the corner of his vision, but it was blurry, as if he'd lost his glasses in the fall.

“Virgil, _VIRGIL_!” Logan struggled against Janus, who was pulling to his feet, keeping him away from Virgil, his Stormcloud.

God, why hadn’t he ever thanked him for writing that song? For saying yes when Logan asked for kisses, for letting him borrow his warm hoodies. Why had he never thanked him for all that? Logan reached forward, but Janus’s grip was firm.

“I have to help him!” Logan screamed.

“You can’t.”

“He’s still conscious! Please Janus, look, he’s _dying.”_

Virgil thrashed, his body convulsing from pain, and Logan cried out again, unaware of the sound of the sirens, the flashing lights, Remus getting out of the car that hit Logan’s love.

Logan was barely aware of Virgil’s friend, Jess, getting up out of the snow where she’d fallen, hearing the satisfying crack as she knocked Remus out in one punch.

Paramedics were here, they were pulling him and Janus away as Logan started to sob uncontrollably. Janus turned him so that he was holding the taller nerd to his chest, hand rubbing across his back.

“Don’t touch me!” Logan sobbed, feebly pushing away, hot tears soaking his face as the sirens sounds faded, but police remained behind, handcuffing the unconscious Remus and talking to the others.

A policewoman approached them and smiled kindly. “Can we interview you two?”

Janus was saying something, Logan wasn’t listening and then the woman was speaking again, to him.

“Logan, Logan Berry? What was your status with Virgil Storm?”

Her question was too loud, too much and she spoke in the past tense. Logan felt a broken scream rip out of him as he started hyperventilating, breaths coming in choked gasps as his legs gave out and Janus eased them down so they were kneeling in the cold snow, slush seeping into their pants.

“He’s Virgil’s boyfriend. And he needs to get to the hospital to make sure that he’s okay.”

“Was he hit by the car as well?”

“No, he’s having a panic attack because Virgil pushed him out of the way and then you decided to talk about him in the past tense with no actual status on his condition. You're implying that someone's dead." Somehow, Janus’s voice remained level and cool and Logan wanted to scream at him, yell at him for not feeling emotion.

There was a pricking in his exposed neck, a surge of warmth and calm that followed it as a hazy voice explained that it was for shock, to calm down his heart enough so that he wouldn’t burst a valve.

Logan didn’t care.

…

_Jess 10:55 p.m. EST December 20th._

Virgil had pushed her back.

Why?

She saw the college kid getting out of the car, a look of glee slathered under his mustache, and so she did the sensible thing.

She knocked him out with a well placed punch.

…

_Patton 11:20 p.m. EST December 20th._

“And that’ll be all for our questions right now.”

Patton nodded numbly as the police officer walked away. The group was huddled under the crosswalk sign, having been moved out of the street so that another accident wouldn’t happen.

Janus was still holding a sobbing Logan and Patton joined them, hugging his boyfriend and the nerd, quietly looking up as he prayed into the snowflakes.

It was Sam who had called 911, literally the second of impact. Patton hadn’t been watching ahead of him, but when the sound of bone crunching against metal had jolted him from his conversation, it had been too late.

He wasn’t sure who’s realization scream had been louder-- his or Logan’s.

Patton felt awful. Virgil didn’t deserve this, Logan didn’t deserve to have his last view of the emo of him wreathed in blood, in so much pain.

Logan’s sobbing had reduced to shuddering breaths, mild panic, but he had calmed down enough that Janus pulled back a bit, enough so that the others could gather around Logan.

“I’m so sorry.” Roman murmured, one hand reaching out uncertainly for Logan.

“Don’t. say. That.” Logan hissed.

Patton’s heart broke again and he held back tears as he pulled Logan out of Janus’s arms and into his own. “Kiddo…”

“I can’t lose him Dad.” Logan pushed his head into Patton’s shoulder, and Patton soothingly ran one of his hands through the nerd’s brown hair, humming to block out the noise of so many people so that Logan could calm down a bit more.

“I know kiddo, I know.”

…

_Janus 12:30 a.m. EST December 21st._

Janus had spent way too much time in hospitals in his humble opinion. 

Every single chair in the waiting room had been filled, and with Jess icing bruised knuckles while Sam did a crossword puzzle and Roman talked to Remy in hushed tones, you could almost pretend that they were different people waiting on their own small emergencies.

Patton had one arm around Logan still, occasionally whispering something positive to the nerd.

Logan was so fragile. Janus had never seen someone so emotionless break that badly before and it was heart wrenching to hear Logan’s cries in the moments after the accident.

Janus felt embarrassed that through the whole accident that he hadn’t shown any emotion, and now that they were waiting for a status update on Virgil, he felt the waves of fatigue roll in like a train.

A tall African-American woman in scrubs came walking out of the ER doors, making her way to Sam and handing her a small slip of paper, before going back through the doors and disappearing.

Sam’s eyes widened when she read the paper and she silently stood and brought it over to Janus.

“Here.”

Janus looked at it and he turned to Patton, who gently tapped Logan.

_“Logan. Virgil, he's alive.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thomas: this is anxiety, his name is virgil and he's had a rough time,
> 
> Fanfic authors: angsttttttt for the purble boi.
> 
> Thomas: ....  
> ...
> 
> comments? kudos? 
> 
> also, virgil's last words in this chapter were gonna be 'holy shit, it's a christmas miracle' but instead they're 'hey, we should run across- it’s not like anyone is coming, it’s almost eleven!'  
> sweet, painful irony.


	26. Spiraling out of control. (why can't I remember you?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Virgil wakes up, things are different.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virgil's stream of thought at the beginning happens over the course of a few days.  
> yay, we're on the downward slope towards the ending!
> 
> TW: Blood, choking, blood, ptsd flashbacks, angst, fluff.

_ I'm sitting here, crying in my prom dress, I'd be the prom queen if crying was a contest-- Makeup is running down, feelings are all around…. _

_ Voices, fading, ah gosh, the song selection was awful, who was in charge of the playlist? _

_ Why did his hip and arm feel like they were on fire? _

_ Something was off, he couldn’t open his eyes and there was a beeping sound from somewhere that was giving him the worst headache he’s had since that time that Dad threw his head into the wall. _

_ It sounded like the T.V. was on now, and he heard his name, spoken by some woman. _

_ Virgil Storm, 21, college, the voice was fading, car accident, it felt like he was weighed down by bricks. _

_ Hit and attempted murder, news voice was back. _

_ Well, nothing was new on that front. _

_ His thoughts felt sluggish as he tried to remember what he was doing before falling asleep like this. _

_ Roman _

_ Ah yes, he was in the Christmas Carol, and Virgil had sat next to Logan, and he was pretty sure that he fell asleep during act two and that Logan had handed him a Christmas Rose to give to the Prince. _

_ Wait. _

_ Christmas Carol didn’t have princes. _

_ And who was Logan? _

_ Another name floated up to his memory, a girl with a pixie cut and no costume. Jess. _

_ Yes, he’d been talking to her. _

_ About what though? _

_ She was yelling something, excited maybe? Virgil strained and looked up and down, seeing snow and green lights. _

_ Christmas lights, how festive. _

_ He took a step off the curb. _

_ Lights. _

_ Impact. A flash of delirium, him laughing from hysteria. _

_ Someone was loading him on a stretcher, he was fine, they were placing a mask over his mouth and nose, he was choking in his own blood and… _

_ A prick, sharp scissors slicing away his jacket, he’d spent three weeks of pay buying that jacket, gosh dammit, it’s not like he could steal Logan’s coat. _

_ Again with the Logan name. _

_ He must be important. _

_ A needle, sliding into his arm. _

_ You’ll be okay Virgil, just hang on, are you breathing, what’s your last name? _

_ Storm. My last name is Storm. _

_ Where’s Logan? _

_ Where are you taking me? _

_ His heart rate and blood pressure are rising, he needs blood. _

_ WHERE’S LOGAN? A surge of panic, he needed to find this Logan, why was he so important? _

_ Hush, Logan’s okay, you saved him honey, you can calm down, stop pulling on the restraints, you can’t afford to lose anymore blood darling. _

_ Why am I hurting everywhere? _

_ Voices were back, pulling him from the memory. _

_ Logan, I know that he hasn’t woken up yet, you have to go eat, I’ll watch him for you. _

_ I don’t want to eat anything Janus. _

_ Patton brought you some soup, he said that maybe the smell will wake him up. _

_ Please go away Janus. _

_ I’m not leaving until you eat. _

_ What if the coma they put him in, what if he can’t get out of it? _

_ LoLo, that’s irrational. _

_ It’s happened to people before! _

_ Virgil’s tough, he’ll wake up. They told me that he was still coherent in the ambulance and so he’s got that going for him. _

_ He spent 12 hours in surgery Janus. And that was mostly hand reconstruction. Fifteen screws in his hand! How are we going to tell him that he’s probably never gonna be able to write with that hand again? _

_ Wasn’t he right handed though? _

_ He was ambidextrous, it was amazing to watch. But what about ukulele and guitar, you can’t play if you can’t move your hands to work with the chords. _

_ I’d say merry Christmas, but I don’t think it fits the mood. _

_ Hey Roman _

_ Hi Ro.  _

_ Any signs of him deciding that he’s done being sleeping dreary? _

_ No. _

_ Can I choose the next song? _

_ What one were you planning? _

_ Death bed by Powfu. _

_ Dude. _

_ He said once that it was his sad day song, although I can see why you don’t want it to be played. _

_ Yeah. _

_ Lo, what if you kissed him? Like to break the spell?  _

_ Virgil and I agreed to never kiss without asking the other if it was okay first. I’m not about to break that for him, it’d be rude. _

_ Do you think he can hear us? _

_ Audio sensory is the last thing to go. Wait. I have a stupid idea. _

_ Oh, do tell. _

_ What is it? _

_ Virgil liked it when I rubbed his head, maybe that contact will wake him up. _

_ Squeaking of a chair being moved across hospital flooring. _

_ Shuffling footsteps. _

_ There was pressure on his forehead, a warm hand smoothing the worry lines back, fingers gently scratching at his scalp. _

_ Virgil?  _

_ Gentle voice, he knew this one was Logan. _

_ Logan. _

_ Oh no, he’d hurt himself saving Logan, everything was falling into place, he needed to wake up NOW. _

_ Oh my everloving love of Disney, his eyes are opening!  _

__ Virgil’s eyes flew open and he coughed, sending the feeding tube that had been lodged down his throat up, as Logan and Roman stumbled back a few feet, both with looks of shock and relief on their faces.

An alarm blared as Virgil continued to cough, sending up bile and blood as his body tried to get rid of the feeding tube.

“Oh for goodness snakes.” Janus stalked forward and yanked the tube out, letting Virgil take gasping breaths of air as a few nurses rushed in, moving Logan, Roman and Janus out of his line of sight.

“Logan.” Virgil rasped as he coughed again and one of the nurses pushed his friends further out of reach.

_ “LOGAN!” _

Virgil tried to sit up, they were gently pushing him back, why weren’t they letting him see Logan, he _needed_ to see him.

“Mr. Storm, we need you to calm down or else we’re gonna have to sedate you again.” 

Virgil let out a whine of annoyance as he stopped struggling, hoping that one of the nurses would let him see Logan.

“Ma’am, please, he called for me, you heard it.”

“Mr. Berry, I’m sorry but you cannot stay, he has to go through the standard wake up procedures and we simply can’t have you interfering with it.”

“Fuck the standards. He called for me and I’ll fight my way past you if I have to. It’s not like I haven’t seen him looking like a bloody mess.”

There was a sigh of defeat. “Fine.”

And there was Logan. He was in one of Virgil’s hoodies and he walked over to the hospital bed, being careful to not step on any chords or medical stuff before coming to a stop by Virgil.

“Logan.” Virgil carefully reached his good hand up, fingers tracing along Logan’s cheek as tears rolled down his face.

“How are you feeling Virge?” Logan gently grabbed his hand and smiled, looking as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Terrible.” Virgil managed to choke out before another bout of coughing seized him.

Logan laughed. “That checks out. I’m glad you’re awake Stormcloud.” he rubbed his thumb over the top of Virgil’s hand, before carefully bringing it down so that Virgil’s hand wouldn’t fall asleep and trip up the heart rate monitor that was connected to his pointer finger. 

“Get some rest, you earned it.”

“Okay Left Brain.” Virgil coughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment you coward.  
> kudos you coward.
> 
> prom dress is by mxmtoon and it's so a roman or janus song. maybe some virgil when you listen to the lyrics, but I get total janus vibes from it.


	27. there's someone always waiting at the table you know.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan visits a recovering Virgil.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blood and infection warning. 
> 
> um, this story has been on heck of a ride, but I do warn you that it's going through it's last narrative cycle, so when it gets to Virgil, again, it's done and this fic will be finished. Thank you all so much for your continued support over the past two weeks as I've written this posting at least on chapter a day, but on average two and occasionally three, like I did today.
> 
> sam and jess really like punching people, i've begun to notice.

In the days after Virgil’s first (and thankfully only) surgery, Logan had thought that he would have woken up, just as snarky and ready to go on a quest to break Remus’s nose for a second time.

But instead, Virgil slept fitfully, sedated by the team of doctors so that he could heal undisturbed and without the storm of media that was camping outside of the hospital.

Logan was on his way to visit Virgil when they bombarded him with questions, each of them crawling over each other as they thrust their microphones at his face.

“Is it true that the infamous Stormcloud--”

“Logan, Logan! A quick word please!”

“What happened the night of the accident? Can you tell us more about what _really_ was going on?”

“Logan! Is it true that you’re in relations with Virgil Storm?”

“Can you give us any information abou--”

Logan whirled around, a snarl plastered on his face that caused the all news anchors to take a few fearful steps back.

“Stop pretending that you care about us. Stop coming around here. None of his friends or associates have anything to say to you, so go find some other Floridian person to bother before I punch you all in the face.”

He then turned and entered the hospital, ignoring the flashing of cameras behind him as he checked into the hospital, signing in all his info.

The receptionist smiled kindly at him as she offered the name tag. “It’s so sweet of you to come in everyday like this, and with flowers no less! If I’d told my husband that I was in the hospital, he’d probably forget that I was there!”

“That’s horrible.” He said bluntly as he attached the sticky name tag to his messenger bag. Logan picked up the bouquet and went up to Virgil’s room, warily eyeing people the whole time.

It wasn’t the first time that reporters had managed to sneak past the front desk. When it had first happened, Virgil had still been unconscious, and Sam had decked two of the filmers before security had come in to take care of it.

He reached the Miscellaneous floor of the hospital and walked to Virgil’s room, just pausing outside the door.

Logan took a deep breath and entered the room, a wide smile across his face as he set the flowers on the bedside table and sat down in the chair to wait for Virgil to wake up.

RoRo: Hey, did you get sandblasted by the media at the hospital?

LoLo: Yeah.

RoRo: Ah shit. I was hoping that they’d give up by now.

LoLo: Don’t tell me that they’re outside the condo again.

RoRo: Remy, Jess, Patton and I are stuck and Janus decided to chill at Sam’s until he could sneak back.

LoLo: That bad?

RoRo: You should have seen Remy earlier this morning. He bought a katana and used that to get to the front door.

LoLo: There’s got to be some sort of law against loitering.

Virgil stirred from the bed next to him and Logan’s head shot up, hastily sending one last text to Roman.

LoLo: He’s awake, ttyl.

Logan slipped his phone away and scooted his chair closer so that when Virgil was awake enough, he’d see him.

“Hey Logan.”

“Hey yourself. How are you feeling?”

“Still like I’ve been through a meat grinder. How many days has it been since the accident?”

“Fifteen days, thirteen hours and twenty-one minutes. I was beginning to think that you were just gonna keep sleeping until next year.”

“It is next year. I’m sorry for ruining Christmas.” Virgil shifted his eyes to the cracked ceiling and Logan shook his head.

“I should be apologizing for not remembering your birthday.”

Virgil laughed, before breaking into a wheezing cough. “I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Well, I’ll let you open your present. 16 days late.” Logan pulled the small box out of his bag and handed it over. “I’ll be right back.” He stood and wandered out to the hall, looking for the main doctor that was incharge of Virgil’s recovery.

Once he had located the man, he pulled him aside.

“He’s still coughing, it’s been ten days.”

“If your two faced friend hadn’t pulled a feeding tube out of his throat, maybe Virgil could have gone home by now. There’s tissue damage Logan, and we just want to make sure that it won’t scar and ruin his vocal chords so he can still speak with you.” he tapped a pen against his clipboard and pursed his lips in thought as Logan nodded.

“He looked like he was choking and Janus panicked, I apologize.” Logan said as he adjusted his tie and glasses.

“Well, we were most certainly not expecting him to wake up that fast after we reduced sedatives, so there's an error on my part, for miscalculating how fast his metabolic rate was. When the body is subjected to an alien device, it’s first reaction is to reject it and so waking up with tubes coming out of your mouth and nose probably wasn’t the best way to awaken.”

“Is that why he has an infection in his hand.” a statement. Logan had seen the swelling skin, a latticework of scars and anger.

“He was having mild inflammation, the screws have actually taken quite well to the chemicals in his body.”

“Then why have you guys upped the antibody dosage?”

“We are taking the utmost precautions, and I understand that you care for Virgil so much, but you have to let me do my job and you have to do yours, which at the moment is keeping him positive in the upcoming weeks.”

“Of course. I must be getting back to Virgil.” Logan thanked the man and went back to the room.

Virgil was poking at the present, a frown etched into his face. The hand that was in the brace was attempting to hold the gift down, while he picked at the ribbons with his good hand.

“I was waiting for you to get back before I opened it.”

“Understandable. But on the off chance that you weren’t, could I assist you in starting?”

Virgil flopped back defeatedly and waved the hand in the brace above his head. “Yeah, I need help with it.”

Logan reached forward and tore off a small corner of the wrapping paper, just enough to get Virgil started.

“Thanks. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“For starters, you wouldn’t be in the hospital.”

“I’d probably still be here, the universe loves to throw it’s shit at me.” Virgil laughed before grimacing from pain. “My throat feels awful.”

“You can blame Janus next time he pops by.”

That coaxed a smirk out of Virgil, and he tore at the rest of the wrapping paper, revealing a nondescript box.

“It’s everything I ever wanted Logan, thank you.”

“Open it you dork.”

Virgil carefully opened the box, eyes widening in shock when he saw the phone inside.

“This is way too much.”

“Your phone was shattered when you got hit, I just had a friend reprogram all of your stuff into a new one so that I’d be able to contact you.”

“Yeah, but with Patton’s family paying for the bills and then this, it’s way too much for someone like me.”

Logan shook his head. “You are always worth it, and I don’t want anymore of the self depreciation. Not on my watch.” 

Virgil nodded before turning the phone over to inspect the case. Logan could see that his hand was shaking a bit and he moved his chair a bit closer to Virgil’s bed so that he could at least pretend that there wasn’t a bunch of metal separating them.

“Logan?”

“Hmm?”

“There’s enough room for both of us.” 

Logan nodded and clambered into the hospital bed, wrapping his arms around Virgil once he was situated as comfortably as one can be without hitting any medical devices or accidentally pulling out an I.V.

Virgil rested his head into the crook of Logan’s neck, their breaths syncing up as they slowly fell asleep.

Overall, if Logan ignored his worries and fears of tomorrow, tonight was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sof logan, we stan him
> 
> Remus was going 40mph when he hit Virgil. the majority of the damage was in his hand, as it was the first thing to collide with the car. With the force of impact, Virgil was flipped over the car, getting some pretty bad bruising and slicing open his hip when he hit the bumper. His head hit the road pretty hard and so that's kinda why the snow got so bloody and anyway, the car was in front of him when it stopped, not behind.  
> If he hadn't done anything, Logan would have been hit and killed upon impact. the only reason why Virgil didn't die was because of how he was moving, it made it so that instead of his core organs taking the hit, it was mostly his legs. He'll have a slight limp when he gets out of the hospital, but physical therapy will work that out of his system.  
> His hand will need a lot more work and he'll most likely have chronic pain if he strains it too much too fast. It's unsure if he'll ever be able to go back to playing guitar and ukulele.
> 
> chapter title inspired by the song, 'my r'
> 
> give me comments or give me death. kudos would also be nice :D


	28. Plead with me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman visits his brother one last time.  
> chaos ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay, almost done! just tying up loose ends!

“Remus, I’m done.”

“With what? You’re no good terrible brother?” Remus cackled and leaned forward, resting his head in his hands that were handcuffed to the table in front of him.

“You almost killed my best friend!”

“I was aiming for you.”

“Rem, I’m here and I’m trying to convince you to take the insanity plea. You’ll finally get the help that you need.”

“Oh, Roman, you forget your place. I could’ve killed you at any point, I’d been stalking your every move since I followed you to this hell hole and yet you refused to take me seriously.” Remus pouted and shook his cuffs. “Until it was too late. Just like with Janus.”

“Don’t.”

“I find it odd that both times your friends were hurt to the point of permanent damage, it was with me, a car and your blinding ego.”

“Remus. Please just listen to me.”

“Oh I follow the news, I saw that the famous Stormcloud had finally resurfaced, after what?, four years and when I went and watched the video, I recognized him as an edgy Roman. Of course, that was before the universe figured out that you were with your other selves and started adjusting your genes to restore balance.”

Roman threw his hands forward in exasperation. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh come on, none of you guys even look related anymore.” Remus tried to pull his hands to fit in his lap, but they were met with rattling chains. “I knew that sure, I could hurt you, but plans changed a bit impromptu and then that bitch with the short hair tazed me--”

“She knocked you out with a punch. Stop acting like some crazy smart killer and start acting like a kid who’s plan went wrong! Remus, I can’t watch you go to jail for the rest of your life because you’re misguided! Please take the plea!”

“Fine.”

Roman sagged forward in relief. “I guess I’ll see you at the trial.”

Remus said nothing and then the prison security came to lead them in opposite directions.

It seemed like they had been heading in opposite directions their entire lives, and Roman paused when he got outside, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Finally, finally he could begin to heal from the damage that Remus had wrought over the past 21 years of his life. 

Roman walked away that day, with a spring in his step and peace in his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment you coward.
> 
> if two people are too alike, the universe will literally bend itself to make them genetically different. Times that by five now. So Patton's observation is correct and hopefully by the same time next year, they'll all be completely different looking people if they keep living together under this one chaotic condo.


	29. Home.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton and Janus prepare for a party.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've said it before and I'll say it again, I've always hated writing in Patton's POV. but, it's the last time i am for this story, and I'll admit, I teared up a little bit.  
> Also, I just wanna say this to the Sanders Sides fandom: You guys are literally the least toxic people I've ever met, so thank you so much for your ongoing support and whatnot.

Patton taped the last silver balloon to the stairwell, brushing his bangs to the left as he climbed down the ladder that Janus was holding steady for him. 

“Thank goodness they planned the sentencing the same day as Virgil getting released.” Patton folded the ladder and carried it to the back porch, with Janus trailing behind him.

“Yeah, at least the media is focused over there, it’ll give Remy enough time to sneak him out.” Janus opened the back door and held it for Patton as he put the ladder away. “I feel bad for Logan, having to even go just to testify.”

“It’s okay, he’s got Roman and Sam there, they’ll make sure that he doesn’t gut Remus the second they bring him out.” Janus laughed darkly and Patton smiled.

“We still need to frost the cake.”

“You really decided to go all out on this.”

Patton puffed up proudly. “Of course I did! It's two in one day! Virgil gets back to a party and Roman needs some cake after everything he’s gone through. It’s going to be the best party anyone could have wanted!”

Patton led Janus to the kitchen, where a very lopsided tier cake was waiting, completely unfrosted.

“What colors should we do the frosting? I have piping bags, so we can mix two part way and it’ll give it a really cool marble effect.” 

“The same colors as the rest of the decorations, purple and grey.”

There was a knock on the door, and Patton looked at Janus, who sighed and went to get it.

“HOLY HELL, QUICK LET ME IN!” A panicked Jess came barreling in, slamming the door behind her as she threw off her shoes and collapsed at the kitchen table.

“Everything okay kiddo?” Patton started loading frosting into one of the piping bags as the girl shook her head.

“I got media ambushed on the way over.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Patton licked some frosting off his finger and twisted the bag shut. 

“How many?” 

“Four total. I was not expecting cameramen and people with boom mics to be able to run so fast. Anyway, I came to help get ready, but it looks like everything’s pretty much done.” 

“Has your sister text you yet on how the proceedings were going?” Janus joined her at the table as Patton began to pipe whorls onto the cake, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on the task at hand.

“She said that the jury has been arguing since nine on a decision. Apparently, they understand that he was guilty for attempted premeditated murder, but since Virgil technically wasn’t the target and since he pled insanity, they’re trying to find something to give the judge.” 

“I’m just hoping that the end time doesn’t overlap with Virgil getting here because the last thing he needs after getting out of the hospital is a storm of people outside.”

Patton ran out of icing in the first bag and switched to the second, pausing long enough to smear some frosting across his forehead accidentally. “How much time until Remy gets back?”

“Ten minutes if everything went okay and they managed to dodge any roadblocks of people!” 

“Well, if they’re still arguing a decision, then there’s no way that’ll have everything wrapped up in ten.” Patton went back to his cake and Janus thought for a moment before nodding in agreement.

For Patton, the next ten minutes went by way too fast, and he barely finished frosting the cake when the door opened and Remy proudly led in a limping Virgil.

“He’s back bitches!”

Virgil looked up at all the decorations and shook his head. “And apparently I was missed.”

“Of course I missed my dark strange son!” Patton walked out of the kitchen and folded Virgil into a hug, holding him close. “It’s just not the same without you around.”

When Patton let go, he held Virgil at arm's length to inspect him. “So, you still have the hand thingie.”

“It’s a brace to make sure I don’t shut my hand until everything is fully healed.”

“How long is that?” 

“Until February fourteenth.”

“That’s only two weeks away, you can do it kiddo!” Patton let go and retreated back into the kitchen before bringing out the cake and setting it one the table. 

Slowly, everyone migrated over, until they were sitting at the table, waiting for Logan, Roman and Sam.

“You brought the patio furniture in.”

“There wasn’t enough seats and we can fit three people on the wicker couch. How was coming back?”

Remy ruffled Virgil’s hair before answering. “Quiet once we used the back exit to get out. The media will probably figure out that we siked them, but at least it’s pushed back.”

“Thank goodness for that. Should we wait for everyone to get back, or just break into the cake right now?” Janus waved his hand at the cake and Patton gasped.

“We have to wait for everybody, it’s common courtesy. And the cake’s too beautiful to not be looked at and loved for at least twenty minutes prior to consumption.”

Remy looked down at his phone before looking back at the group. “Well, we won’t have to wait long. Jury just came to a decision and now the judge is doing whatever he does.”

“Yay!” Patton pulled confetti poppers from under his chair and passed them out. “We can pop these when everyone gets back.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Janus asked as he accepted his.

“Since when have I had a bad idea?”

“Paintball in the hospital.” Virgil said.

“Roasting chestnuts over an electric fire.” Jess popped her popper, yelping when the strings of confetti hit her in the face.

“Your mom told me that you said that it’d be a great idea to physically hunt your thanksgiving turkey.” Janus waggled his eyebrows at Patton, who sighed.

“But they were okay ideas?”

Janus relented and nodded. “They were okay ideas.”

“Except for the paintball one. As cool as it would have been for you to bring paint-balling to me, I don’t think that you would have made it three feet inside without being arrested.”

“It’s Florida, pretty much anything flies. And I think that my paintball idea takes the cake.” Patton pointed out.

“True.”

“I am just so glad to have everyone back.” He smiled at his family and wished that thing would stay like this forever. Patton closed his eyes and imagined the moment, perfectly still, a perfect photograph in his memory.

Things would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two more chapters.  
> two more chapters..  
> kudos?  
> comments?


	30. Forgiveness and Remembrance.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus helps Virgil cope with PTSD.  
> chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> almost done!

Janus had not been expecting Virgil to ask him anything about PTSD in accidents.

And yet, here they were, both holding coffees, twin canes resting at the table that they were occupying at the campus’s only Starbucks.

The only difference being that Virgil would only need his cane for about three more weeks as his leg slowly healed to what it had once been.

“Do you still have flashbacks of your accident?” Virgil lazily stirred his drink, watching the ice cubes melt as Janus thought back.

“Not as much as I used to. It becomes duller, the memory as life goes on. And I was only thirteen, so at least I could build more memories that hid the pain.”

“What if I can’t forget?” Virgil looked at him and Janus shrugged before taking a drink from his coffee.

“You learn to cope. Trust me Virgil, I’ve got your back, Logan’s got your back, I’m pretty sure that Roman and Remy will take out anyone with a katana who tries to hurt you again.” Janus set down his drink and looked at Virgil, his  heterochromatic eyes flashing. “You have people now, something that you didn’t have the first time around.”

“Thanks cane buddy.” Virgil grinned, and he picked his cane up and tapped it against Janus’s knee.

“Not for long.”

“Eh, I’ll miss the complete loss of both my hands.” Virgil flexed the other hand, which had downgraded from what Janus had heard him call ‘a grade A pain in the ass’ to a simpler brace that still restricted movement, but at least allowed him to partway close the hand.

“Physical therapy is one I definitely don’t miss from my countless surgeries.”

“How many did you end up having?”

“Six in total, although number five doesn’t really count as it was a skin graph to my side and therefore, quickly healed.”

“I still think it counts. I’m lucky they got everything done in one.”

Janus grimaced a bit and shook his head. “Twelve hours sounds like a living hell.”

“Not if you’re unconscious.”

“I talked to one of the doctors, the one who stitched up your hip, specifically and she told me that you dissed her music taste while under.”

“No way, I don’t believe you.” Virgil’s eyes widened in shock and he snorted, leaving Janus chuckling.

“Yeah, they thought that you were out, with the concussion and the blood loss and then with how badly your hand was jacked up, so they called her in to fix you up before they started with the hand and you insulted her song choice.”

“I’m mortified Janus, why’d you tell me that?” 

“Because it’s my favorite story that any doctor’s ever told me.”

“What about patient confidentiality?” Virgil’s face is a bright cherry red and Janus can’t help but laugh at his friend’s embarrassment.

“I’m told that I can get quite persuasive.”

“Who told you that?”

“Patton.”

“Oh my gosh Janus, I  _ did not _ need to know that.” Virgil choked, face burning as Janus continued to laugh.

“You asked. Speaking of Patton, I promised him that I’d meet him for a movie and our impromptu therapy session is cutting it a bit close to my go time.”

Virgil shook his head and waved a hand at Janus. “Get out of here, Two Face. Logan’s probably worried that I haven’t shown up to the library yet.” 

Janus stood and took his drink and cane, walking out into the cold February afternoon. 

Patton was waiting for him under the big cinema sign, and when he saw that Janus had finally shown up, he ran the rest of the way to hug him.

“I missed you, even though it’s only been three hours.”

Janus flourished his cane and wrapped his free arm around Patton. “I missed you too.”

“Do you promise to be on time next time we meet up like this?” Patton asked as he gently poked Janus in the side.

“Promise.”

“And you won’t sike me out with another psychology test?”

“Was that a verbal pun?”

“Yes, did you like it? Sam text it to me the other day.” Patton grinned proudly and Janus smiled softly.

“I promise Patton.”

“And do you promise to remember that you forgot that Valentine’s day was yesterday?”

“It was? I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay! We can celebrate it today!”

Janus sighed inwardly with relief, grateful that Patton was so forgiving of everything, even the biggest mistakes that most people wouldn't even consider forgivable.

He gave Patton a kiss on the cheek, and together they walked into the theater, to the future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments?  
> kudos?


	31. And it all worked out in the end.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's May and Virgil and Logan look forward to the future.  
> Peace ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's all folks!

“It was a little touch and go there in the end, but it all worked out.” Logan shelved the book that Virgil handed him, smiling as he read the title before reaching for the next book.

“I didn’t realize that library drama could be so engaging.” Virgil handed Logan the last book in the box, watching as Logan put it on the shelf with care.

“It’s actually really boring compared to the living hell that we all went through this year.” Logan went to reach for another book, but Virgil surprised him by putting his hand in Logan’s.

“I’m okay with hell as long as I’m stuck with you.”

“Hmm, you’re only saying that because we currently aren’t in hell.”

Virgil smirked. “So what if I am? I’m going to miss you over the summer.”

“Why don’t you just come with me? Oregon’s a beautiful place when it’s not raining. I could show you Astoria and Portland and we could probably drive down to San Francisco..”

Virgil pulled Logan close, and shook his head. “I’m not flying over, Left Brain. Not even if you held a gun to my head and offered me a million dollars.”

“Pity.” Logan kissed Virgil, who let out a surprised laugh and pulled back. 

“I keep forgetting about how you’re such a great kisser.”

“Hypothetically, I could kiss you enough times to convince you to come.” Logan mumbled as he kissed Virgil again.

“I'll have to get used to not having you around, which is a horrible thing, but Jess, Sam and Janus are all also spending the summer here, so in reality, you’re the one who’s missing out.” Virgil teased as he planted a warm kiss on Logan’s nose.

“Maybe I’ll come back for the fourth of July.”

“Maybe you should.”

“What you two should be doing is shelving books.” A voice sliced through the moment, trampling the mood and tossing it at their feet like a depressed piñata. 

Virgil hastily broke apart from Logan and turned to see the senior staff glaring at them, her ponytail still shaking with disapproval. 

“Sorry Lindy.”

“There’s no cameras in the back room if you’re gonna get all smooshy, but please make sure you mind the patrons when you’re out here. Some of us still have finals to study for.” Lindy disappeared from sight and Virgil looked back at Logan.

“Why are people in glasses always so serious?”

“I’m serious because I am a serious person.” Logan adjusted his glasses and attempted a scowl before breaking back into a smile.

“Let’s get out of here.” Virgil held out his left hand, and Logan took it, ignoring the scars, the way that it shook when Virgil closed his hand around Logan’s and he pulled them out of the library and into the darkening night.

There was no way that either of them could predict what would happen next, not with statistics or hours of theoretical physics, but as they walked, Virgil mused that maybe,  _ just maybe _ , the universe had a way of making this turn out just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied okay? there's gonna be a sequel because I really like this au.
> 
> comments? kudos?
> 
> I now have a discord server! [Here it is!!!](https://discord.gg/kFZCXg)


End file.
